Having climbed into the Divination classroom George Grogan hangs up his things and takes his Divination text books to his seat with him. He greets his friends as usual and gets his things ready in the typical fashion that has become a ritual for him almost. George brushes a bit of his long black hair from his eyes in frustration. Perhaps today he will devine that its time to get a haircut?

Forcing himself into the classroom, Gabe Goden sighs dramatically as he slumps down into a sitting position, resting his forehead on two fists, elbows on his textbook. Dad had always made is opinions on his class known– bordering on useless! But mum had always stared him down in times like those. For this reason, Gabe perks up a little, putting forth an effort and waiting for class to start.

Angry footsteps stamp down on the ground, echoing ahead of Kelly Pantall as her less than gentle footsteps often do. She climbs up through the floor, her face a picture of annoyance, glaring in turn at each person her eyes fall upon and biting at her lower lip angrily. As someone dares to ask her what’s got her so angry, she whirls on the unfortunate, planting her hands on her hips firmly and glaring. “Why wouldn’t I be angry? You know, my supposed sweetheart hasn’t so much as spoken to me for weeks.” Though the unfortunate seems stunned for a moment, he merely nudges his friend, offers a quiet remark to the extent of ‘what’s the bet she only noticed this morning?’ – but the Gryffindor girl doesn’t notice this remotely, merely moving to her desk and dumping her bag on the ground next to her with a distinct, loud thunk, awaiting the beginning of class in silence. Oh, drama, drama, drama.

Evelynn Lawley enters, jangling as she always does with the large amount of metal jewelry(enchanted poorly to look like pure silver) on her wrists, but now also hanging from her ears. Yes, gaudy faux-silver earrings with green glass set into them are apparently her favorite new things, as her mass of curls has been pulled back from her face to better show them off. “Oh, Miss Pantall, dear, it can’t be helped.” She flashes her white teeth in a horribly fake smile, “He’s obviously misplaced his brain.” Now her painted-red lips form a sort of pseudo sympathic pout and her eyelashes flutter.

“Alright, settle in everyone. We’ve an interesting class today. Which, of course, you already know if you’ve done your reading.” Bonnie smiles wryly and picks up her wand, putting the chalk at the ready for when she speaks of something important. “First, though, I’ll have your homework, and I’ll hand back your essays from last class.” She strides around the desk and retrieves the pile, starting around the room to hand them each to its owner. “These are an improvement over the last time, but I would sincerely like to see a bit more effort put into them. Don’t forget, any text in the library — but not the restricted section — is at your disposal for this.” The woman nods and begins retrieving the new homeworks to set on her desk.

Kelly Pantall kicks at her bag with a dark expression (and for the record, yes, it did take her until this morning to notice), before looking up at Evelynn with an appraising sort of look, trying to determine if the Slytherin is actually being sympathetic, or if she’s merely making fun of her. “Probably.” She mutters after a moment. On some level, the idea of Hufflepuff brains having been accidentally put down somewhere never to be found again is very attractive to her. “Ever since the stupid social. Why did we have to have a social, anyway? It was a stupid idea.” She pulls the rather crumpled homework out of her bag and sets it on her desk, smoothing it out a little so it looks more presentable before handing it in. Look at all the effort she puts into this class.

Perking an eyebrow at Evelynn, Gabe shakes his head as he looks to Kelly. “Now, who are we talking about here? Rafe?” the name is said with considerable distaste, “Charlie or Mister Foster?” with a rather good-natured grin, Gabe hushes up as the professor begins handing back essays. Snatching his excitedly, Gabe rather makes a face when he sees the mark. Impossible! Briony had helped him think of ideas for this one!

George Grogan bites his lower lip as Evelynn steps in. A very real…. very dopey smile spreads over his face expressing his sentiments for her. “H.. hello Miss Lawley… you can sit with me if you like.” When the Professor begins speaking and handing out essays he becomes quiet again and looks over his own with a look of dread. George‘s face is blushing just a bit and he gets very quiet not wanting to embarass himself any further.

Evelynn Lawley huffs a little incredulously. Is Kelly Pantall trying to hold a conversation with her? Without further ado she smiles almost prettily at George and takes a seat near him, “Why thank you Mr. Grogan, I would be de/lighted/.” She looks more displeased that it wasn’t the dashingly exotic looking Ravenclaw boy across the way, so says nothing else. Thankfully, Evelynn has a distraction, and busies about getting out her homework and trying not to look too displeased with talk of effort. Her brother had said this was a blow off class, and it was shaping out exactly the opposite. “Thank you very much, Professor Kensington,” she says in her high, sacchrine voice as papers are exchanged, old for new. She doesn’t let her face fall too much, instead raising her eyebrows. 53? She’d spent at least ten whole minutes on it. A soft, dramatic sigh escapes.

“Rafe!” Kelly offers in a rather angry response to Gabe, turning around to glare pointedly at him. “I’m not involved with Charlie, not matter what you’ve heard. I’m not even going to mention Mister Prefect Sir.” There’s a brief pause here, and she turns back to the front of the room darkly, lowering her voice noticably. “Mind you, Charlie’s not exactly been communicative lately, either. I don’t know what I’m supposed to have done, to either of them.” In addition to being quite angry over the matter, the Gryffindor girl here indicates her innate cluelessness. She doesn’t even look at the mark of her returned essay, just folding it up and shoving it straight in her bag.

Shrugging, Gabriel moves down a few seats, hauling his belongings, to sit beside Kelly. After all, they might be in a similar position, but Gabe couldn’t tell. Things had been slightly off between him and Briony since the social, too. Recalling what had happened last summer, with Briony being mad at him for being mean to Kelly, Gabriel tries everything, now. “Maybe you should re-trace your steps. Figuratively, I mean. What was the last thing you said to… Rrrafe?” Gabriel tries his hardest to keep the hatred out of his tone.

George Grogan grins again as Evelynn sits next to him. She actually sat next to him! She knows his name! “R… right then…” George quickly folds and puts away his essay afraid that Evelynn migh see his abysimal score. Never mind that hes is only a single point higher his is jusr _dreadfull_. “I errm.. ” He starts to say but feigns muteness in Evelynn’s glorious presence.

“You’re very welcome, Miss Lawley. Please wipe that stuff from your lips,” Bonnie responds, continuing on down the way with only half a glance at Evelyn. She ignores the chatter that everyone is engaging in for the time being and sets the stack of assignments down on her desk, coming to stand in the center of the room. “Alright, as I’m sure you all will know, we’re studying Divination and how it affects Muggles. For those familiar with it, what forms of Divination have the muggles tried to harness? Hands, please.” She glances around, waiting for some student to hazard a guess.

Kelly Pantall shrugs vaguely in response, fixing her angry gaze on the tabletop, brow creased with thought. If she recognises the barely-concealed hatred she does not comment on it – which, considering her response in Astronomy, is probably more a sign that it just slipped past her. “I don’t even remember,” she murmurs, gaze flickering over at Gabe. “I said I wasn’t going to break his sister’s fingers, and that that stupid girl was probably afraid of him because she kept avoiding us, and… I just can’t remember anything inflammatory that I said, because it was nearly right after that that I went to go talk to Charlie.” Because that can’t be even remotely linked, of course. Her eyes flicker up to the Professor, and suddenly she sits up a little straighter, hand flying into the air.

George Grogan raises his hand and fidgets with the end of his quill in his mouth. This is an obvious opprotunity to impress Evelynn and he’s not going to just waste it.

Unfortunately for Kelly, Gabe hasn’t either the social cunning to link the two situations in a way that would bring light to Rafe’s apparent silence. He only shrugs again, with an interested-sounding, “Oh.” His attention is pulled away by the professor again, and Gabe raises his hand slowly.

That stupid girl has taken a seat as far away from Kelly as she possible could have. Clementine doesn’t pay much mind to her essay either, shoving it away. Her long, bony arm slowly raises into the air as the question is asked, lips pursing sternly as she fights her urge to glare over at Kelly.

Evelynn Lawley opens and shuts her mouth, one eye going up in a twitch. Wipe it off? Evelynn lets out another sigh and digs a kerchief from her pocket. Very, very slowly she wipes her precious lip color off, trying hard not to smudge it all over her face. This takes the entire remainder of the passing out time and the question, as bit by bit her lips are restored to a somewhat stained and unluxiorous state. At least she doesn’t smudge it all over, but by contrast her lips look rather pale and seem to blend into her face.

“Alright, let’s hear from you, you, you, you and you,” the teacher states, almost lazily as she points to each of them counter-clockwise around the room, leaning on the edge of her desk and watching the students attempt to stealthily interact with one another. It’s still early in the class, and Bonnie is going to be patient about it for the time being. They are thirteen after all. She crosses her arms over one another as she waits to see what the students will come up with this time.

“I mean,” Kelly further whispers after a moment, “I know he was sort of angry because he was the second person I asked to the social, but I thought he’d, you know, finished being upset about that.” Her hand waves in the air with a silent urgency, a sort of ‘ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me’ that would be verbalized if she didn’t have more important matters at hand. “I mean, I told him that I only asked Josh as a joke, what else was I supposed to say? And that was ages ago.” Ooh, ooh, was that her being picked? Suddenly, she raises her voice to a much more normal volume, waving her hands to try and explain her points. “Um. Palmistry. Tarot cards. Tea leaves. Does phrenology count?” See, she can pronounce it now. “Because ages ago, you said that it wasn’t real Divination, but muggles thought it was.” Considering how eager she was to get called on, she really has quite a poor answer.

“It’s Tarot cards,” Gabe Goden replies, having definitely read that in his textbook and trying to correct Kelly. Though, no matter how correct the answer is in theory, Gabe has pronounced the last ‘t’ in the word, showing a view to his true knowledge on the subject: very little.

“Well Muggles have been known to use Tarot Cards and pendulums…. and tea leaves. Some have been known to use devineing rods… though everyone knows thats just silly nonsense.” George speaks up after Kelly and decides to add. “Some of them even try tol hold sceances and usually end up scareing themselves stupid for nothing.” George smiles and looks over to Evelynn as if to see if she approved. After all…. Her approval is the most important. Forget that silly old Professor!

“There are muggles that claim to see the future with their dreams.” She offers lazilly, returning her hand back down to her after the comment is offered. “It isn’t in the same way that we do it though.” “They aren’t magical.” The girl just blinks, finally giving in and cocking her head to the side. Clementine‘s dark eyes squint into narrow angry slits in Kelly’s direction. If it were socially acceptable, she’d hiss and spit in her direction… but… it saddly is not.

“Not many actually know about the tea leaves, but for all the rest, you all are spot on.” Bonnie turns to check that the chalk isn’t malfunctioning today. Really, one would think that she’d be good at that spell by now. “Tarot cards, divining rods, phrenology, astrology, dream readings, palmistry and various other signs and things that don’t actually resemble Divination in any form.” She glances around. “Muggles were introduced to it before the secrecy laws went into effect, and they have progressed in similar ways to our own, but theirs don’t actually predict anything of consequence except by accident. After all, Seeing and magic go hand in hand, and you cannot have one without the other.” Bonnie looks to the board again. All is well, so far. “Questions so far?”

Having wondered for quite some time, Gabe shoots up his arm for a minute, later asking, “If magic and Seeing go hand in hand, then how come not everyone, I mean, every wizard and witch, can See? My mum said it was a rare gift.” An eyebrow is raised questioningly.

Kelly Pantall has a question – a very, very important one, indeed, and she shows how important it is by elbowing Gabe in the side and narrowing her eyes at him. “Are you trying to make me look bad?” Her voice is low, whispered, rather more like a hiss than normal conversation, however just as quickly she appears to stop paying attention and looks down at her notes which she is half-heartedly taking, notes about methods of Divination that muggles know with a large heart in the middle of the page, one intertwined with delicately drawn ivy. What a pretty drawing, though one entirely unrelated to Divination.

“Very good question, Mister Goden,” Bonnie says with a smile. “Two points to Gryffindor for that.” She looks around for a moment and takes a deep breath before answering. “While magic is a very strong trait, Seeing is not, so while many people get the trait for magical ability, very few people actually get the trait for Seeing. Many wizards do not realize just how rare this trait actually is. The chances that many of you in this room do not actually have it are very high. Time will tell, though.” She smiles down and directs her hand to Kelly. “Yes?”

Glancing away from the professor, Gabe looks to Kelly with a confused look on his face. Rubbing the place where her elbow had lodged itself, Gabriel whispers, “What?” and, upon remembering what he said before, adds, “Oh, no. Just making sure… nevermind,” he says, waving his hand in front of her face. As the professor answers his question, however, the boy nods in response. “Makes sense,” he says in a low voice.

Evelynn Lawley spends at least two minutes looking for a reflective surface, her nostrils flaring self consciously. Finally, she looks down at her nails, fingers flared out, inspecting for dirt or other imperfections. She is listening to the discussion, if only minutely. Occasionally she looks up and pretends to smile at George, but she is otherwise snubbing Bonnie as discretly as she can by, shock and amazement, not answering or asking questions. Not that she does so normally.

Kelly Pantall looks up at the Professor in surprise, apparently taken quite by surprise – oh, right, questions. “Is it possible to have only a little bit of Seeing ability?” Let’s play the making up a question game. “Like, some people are particularly good at Charms or Transfiguration naturally, but others are magical but not as good, is it possibly to have a little bit of talent for Seeing but not very much? Or is it just, like, either you have it completely or you don’t have it at all?” Just for good measure, she elbows Gabe in the side again.

George Grogan blushes just a little from the pretend smile. Of course he dosn’t know that its a pretend smile. When his attention finally returns to the teacher he frowns. George writes down in his notes quickly. “Not everyone posesses the “gift”. But no one is exempt from homework for the lack of the “gift”"

Clementine Duncan leans on a hand, doodling as well… scribbles and the stick figures that love them. Actually, the scribbles are supposed to be her notes. Scanning her classmates, she daydreams about what life might be like if she had was a seer. Her quill smoothly moves across the parchment that she takes notes on, creating a crude drawing of herself and bubbles leading up to her vision. She puts a tree in the bubble. Yeah. The future: A tree. Clementine bends down to flip through her book to see what a tree means.

“When you first start out at Divination, your gift is very raw, and you would be bad at it. I’ve never met a person who didn’t have to work at Divination and Seeing. The Inner Eye is a fickle one, and without work and persistence, would lapse to the raw state again, where you have a difficult time Seeing, and an even harder time interpreting what that means. Also, a very good question, Two more points to Gryffindor for that.” Bonnie smiles at Kelly rather softly. After all, she isn’t deaf, and troubles are still troubles, even if you’re thirteen. “Alright, I want you all to pick an aspect of Divination and compare it with the Muggle aspect of it. I want a compare and contrast essay detailing how the two are similar and how they vary. You may talk about regional aspects, and historical aspects as well. Due next class, and I’d like at least two feet. This is meant to merely be a minimum. I would not say ‘no’ to having longer essays.” She glances around at the mostly quiet classroom. “Well, then, if there are no more questions, you may all lapse into study, or leave, if you must. I will be here, and am willing to answer questions if you continue to have any.” The woman nods at the class and picks up her wand, point to the chalk and uttering something very quiet. The chalk falls to the lip and Bonnie sets her wand down again, taking a seat behind her desk.

On notes throughout the castle, eight pointed stars suddenly flash and then darken to a dull grey. If watched, a rather intricate script begins to spell out, “The hour is almost at hand for cloaked figures to seek the stars.”

The text on notes everywhere fades out again, the eight pointed star with it. The papers remain blank a moment, and as clocks and pocket watches throughout the castle read eight fifty-five in the evening, words appear again: Come, or be forever lost to SEA.

Deep as night at the nine oh clock hour is this Hall of the Stars. The tapestries provide the only light, and even then many of the stars are dimmer than usual. Although curfew has not yet been called, something is unnaturally silent, footsteps muted against the floor, any voices reduced to a hush. In the darkness, forms are shadowy, the light cast from faux stars not brilliant enough to reveal detailed shapes and faces.

Keelan Walsh is nestled against a corner of the wall, cloak drawn close about her, hood already up. She practically blends directly into the wall, merely more darkness. Watchful, she waits for more figures to arrive, barely moving save to breathe. No, Professor Walsh won’t say a word for now, but will wait. Yes, she shall wait.

Rhian Brecon comes the stairwell. She had every right to be out and about at this hour, even after curfew, as a Prefect. While she didn’t wish to get anyone in trouble, she was still curious about this whole thing. In her regular school robes, her wand hidden in her robe and the darkest cloak she had, a nice midnight blue around her shoulders, and her hood up, but hiding her face, she comes into the Hall of Stars, seeing if there was anyone else that had arrived before her.

The usually boisterous second year Briony Wexler almost tip-toes into the Hall of the Stars, ready to bolt for the Picture Room should this turn out to be a hoax. She doesn’t dare say anything, but seems to be trying to disappear altogether in her robes as she makes her way into the Hall of Stars, lurking far back from any other people already queued up in the hall. After all, she doesn’t want to get into trouble if this ends up being a bad situation.

Clavicle Gravely comes in wearing a brownish grayish cloak, of deep earth tones. He steps in quietly and looks about with a curious gaze. His near skeletal frame is hard to recognize beneath the fabric.

Marie-Anna Greyton quietly walks in, making little sound or, for that, hardly any appearance as her black, hooded cloak is drawn up her. It is with care that this prefect makes her way into the room. Eyes dart about to see if she can disern who else may have been invited to thise most secret meeting.

Yeegads! It is a dementor! -Not. It is just Landon in an extreme large robe with his good up. The excess fabric hangs like curtains off of his thin frame and some drags behind him as he walks. He seems to have magically altered the front, though so he won’t trip. Who knew the tailor genes would come in handy!? Presently, he is leaning against the wall in his usual nonchalant manner. Or, at least, that’s all one can assume. With his hood pulled as it is, he could be smiling from ear to ear and nobody would know. That would never happen, though.

Walking almost on tiptoe, Aisling O‘Cormac endevours to make no sound as she enters the room, her ploy somewhat ruined by the slight rustling her robes and cloak make. Glancing around, she drifts over to one of the walls, trying to make herself even smaller than she already is, and attempting to fade into the wall itself.

Scurrying through the hallway and pushing into the shadows, a small form in school robes and a plain hooded cloak catches its breath. Stealing as silently as possible to the meeting place, Astra is dressed like every other student, her hood pulled over her hair to hide her face. Grinning to herself in a mischievous fashion, she’s out for a bit of fun tonight and hopefully no one will recognize her immediately for who she really is.

A lofty form sheltered in a thick black cloak that is just barely too small for her, Clementine Duncan enters the Hall of Stars. The almost deafening silence of the place and the girl’s incredibly desire not to disturb it forces out a raspy little cough. “Sorry.” She excuses herself in a whisper, moving against the wall as well. The tall third year smiles nervously, but no one can see that ideally.

Cloak on, hood up and hanging over his face, Evan Geroff is in that way a copy of every other person showing up tonight. He says nothing, arriving as silently as possible, curious excitement hidden by the same dark that hides his eyes and the hood under which a grin might just be made out, if the dim light managed to hit it. Upon spotting the collection of shadowed shapes, he turns back partway, one hand spread out toward the group as bobs his head to a second figure with him.

“We’ll get into trouble,” the girl hisses quietly, instantly regretting having said anything, given the silence that is resounding in the area. She instantly silences herself, hanging just outside of the group that is gathering, though not so far as to stand against the wall as some people appear to be doing. While she doesn’t voice this, Olivia finds herself wondering very strongly what it is that she’s been dragged here for.

Lyre King purposefully flows into the room. His raven black robes curl behind him on the barest of breezes, showing how fine the silky material is. He adjusts his hood to hide his dark eyes, which he scans the room with. He takes note that there are two adults in the room. He breathes a sigh of relief, assured that he will not get in trouble for being here.

Cloaked and hooded, Martin Foster pads into the room–each step purposefully silent. He peers about the room in continued silence at the students in attendance–all dressed like himself. He raises his index finger to his lips as if to prevent himself (or somebody else?) from speaking. Curiously, the Head Boy’s eyebrows furrow as he crosses his arms comfortably over his chest.

Keelan Walsh steps forward from her corner, not lowering her hood. Eyes well adjusted to the dim light of the room, but she is no better at discerning hooded faces in nearly complete darkness than most are. “I suppose,” she begins quietly, “I should first explain why you have all been invited.” It’s not really a question, and Keelan pushes her glasses up her nose. “It is to teach, yes, but not a subject commonly taught within the walls of our fine school. Not, in my opinion, studied enough either. No, not lectures or in all liklihood books, although they make have their place. I wish also to learn.” She stops, and her tone changes, “How many of you know of the secret passage ways of our school? How many have been into the Forbidden Forest or dared dream of the secrets concealed within these very walls?” Her voice hushes, though she still sounds very grave, “How many of you are aware of the world outside this school? How many… have even read a novel? Fiction, not facts, dates, figures.” Her tone brightens by a small degree, “I mean to teach the art of adventure, as I myself learned it right here in Hogwarts.”

Rhian Brecon turns as she notices someone moving other than the students who showed up, and starts speaking. She knows that voice… and it’s not the voice of a child either. One of the professors? Teaching them the art of adventure? This will be interesting. She says nothing though, not invited to speak, nor apparently the desire to reveal herself since the purpose of all this was to remain hidden from the others, and professor.

Listening quietly to the Professor, Aisling brightens a bit at the mention of adventure, and at the query regarding books. Having read anything she could get her hands on, she has read a few novels in her time, often wishing that her life could be adventurous as that of those in the novels. Still silent, she turns so that she has a good view of the speaking figure, and also of many of the others in the room. Well – as good as a view as the dim light provides.

Clavicle Gravely tilts his head and listens. His eyes narrow a touch as he tries to place the voice. He’s not sure if it’s a seventh year or a teacher. But he nods. Beneath his hood he had the forethought to wear a mask, a carnival mask of a Coyote. As his head raises, the snout emerges from the shadow.He answers “Laughing Coyote Agrees.”

Evan Geroff shakes his head at Olivia, exaggerated a bit so she has some hope of seeing it. Leaning over, in a whisper to barely reach his own ears, he whispers, “We won’t. We’ll just take a look..” Even the whisper stops as Keelan begins to speak. He has moved no closer to the group than Olivia, staying at her side, but he looks over toward the center once before looking back at her and grinning. “See?” Despite the whisper his voice remains in, the word comes out too quickly to be anything but pleased with the beginnings of the night. Keelan may not completely have to teach him adventure, but that’s no reason not to remain and enjoy some of it. And he hasn’t been in some of those places.

Not daring to speak for fear of blowing her cover, Astra hunkers down in her cloak and makes sure the hood is well pulled up to obscure her features. Standing on tiptoes, she hangs back far enough to scamper off again if she doesn’t feel comfortable, but right now, she’s just grinning from ear to ear. Excited and amused, she raises a hand to her mouth and lowers her head to suppress a laugh, whether from nervousness or something else she does not share.

“Adventure!” Briony hisses, noticably excited at the idea. Somoene who sounds like an adult is telling her that she’s going to learn to embrace adventures. The girl claps her hand over her mouth quickly, though, noticing how quiet the hall still is. Learn to keep your mouth shut, Briony! Looking around finally at the group happily, Briony‘s face, were it more visible to her peers, would be a bright and excited one. She can hardly wait. And she who always loved finding adventures!

Marie-Anna Greyton ponders the questions quietly, but she dares not break the silence. Therefore the prefect stands stationary, hidden by cloak and hood.

Eyebrows still furrowed, Martin Foster shifts slightly as Keelan speaks. The professor’s voice is familiar, but the Head Boy can’t place it. He continues to have his arms crossed. Adventure? A little unconventional, but interesting none the less. Biting his lower lip, he continues to stare at the speaking hooded figure, skeptical about the whole affair.

“Adventures?” Olivia whispers dubiously, trying to see over a particularly tall person in front of her, trying to find out why it is she recognizes that voice. She is certain that it will become clear soon, who it is exactly, and that it will make her feel more at ease. The silence which all of those gathered are employign unnerves her a bit and she takes a step behind Evan, just a bit, not feeling entirely at ease.

Thankfully, her own hood is large enough to keep Clementine‘s large snout concealed. She stays quiet as Keelan begins her introduction and continues through it, unconsciously taking a few nervous steps back towards the wall. She doesn’t pay much attention to whether or not there is anyone there already.

The person speaks and Landon doesn’t move an inch. As those who know him probably know, his eyes moved toward the person but nothing else. If anyone was low enough to see up his hood, they would see his eyebrow arch upwards, but he doesn’t speak. When a few people around him start to close in, Landon pushes off of the wall with the foot he was leaning on, and he slides towards everyone else in one, silent, fluid motion.

Lyre‘s grin looks almost like a sneer, though it isn’t his fault. He is practically shaking with excitement at the idea of knowing all of the secrets of the castle.

Clavicle says, “Laughing Coyote wants these secrets you speak of. What must we do to earn them?” he asks…speaking in a gruff voice in an attempt to disguise himself. “We’re quite interested indeed.”"

Keelan Walsh responds with what is if not delight than a tremor of excitement(a quality which her students are not likely to recognize when not raving about plants), “Laughing Coyote, I see you have chosen a name… you must, however, have patience.” Her lips tug into a smile, “Nothing we will have to do, of course.” She moves her hand a bit and the stars subtly begin to brighten, though they do not cast much light even when they are at full force. Her full height is visible, rare enough in a female, “However, yes, adventure. After all, you were invited to the Society for Exploration and Adventure. It will be, I assure you, more than a simple title. However… to become a true member, you must all swear to secrecy. It would not do for certain individuals to discover what we will be up to.” She pronounces this as though she has people in mind as the enemies of adventure. As the room reaches it’s normal level of light, Keelan observes, at the least, the sizes of the people here. “First we have to decide–do we see each other, or do we not?” Her hood remains up, although it’s unlikely that there are any other five-foot-eleven glasses wearing persons with that particular tone of voice. “There is a certain appeal to some amount of anonymity, but this is a society, not a classroom. Come on, I want to hear opinions–and why!” Another smile, just barely visible.

Aisling O‘Cormac looks towards the voice. “Anonymity ensures that no one can tell on us, because they don’t know who we are.” She offers quietly. “But on the other hand, for a society, especially for adventure, we need to have at least a degree of trust in each other – and would we, not knowing anything about the next person?” Having said this, the young girl looks at her feet, turning over the options in her mind, wondering what the others think.

Rhian Brecon clears her throat a bit then speaks up, but changing her voice slightly so it might not be recongized. “I say we do, so that if messages must be passed, we know who we can give them to, and who we cannot. But what if we each know about two others in the society, then we cannot reveal everyone.”

Clavicle says, “Laughing Coyote says there is truth in anonymity. In that truth, one is allowed freedom behind a mask one is not allowed face to face. It allows one to be free of the consequences of that truth. Laughing Coyote advises secrecy. ” the Coyote snout bobs as it’s wearer speaks in the gruff voice. “Laughing Coyote thinks we should take on names. So we have a life of two faces, one here and one the teachers know. Laughing Coyote sees truth in this, and hopes you do as well.”"

Marie-Anna Greyton nods quietly. “Perhaps we each only know one or two people, no two people knowing the same person. For example Person A knows Person B and C, person B knows A and D, C knows B and E…” she offers in a quiet manner. “Or, perhaps, we stick with the method in which we where invited here… only the host know who the members are…” is given in a quiet tone.

Speaking is not something Astra is willing to do and so she keeps her mouth firmly shut, lifting her head as she listens to the students and their opinions about secrecy. Tugging at her hood, she then drops her hand away and slips back a step to stand off to one side.

“Don’t worry,” Evan whispers back to Olivia, one hand moving in the darkness to fold behind his back instead of hang at his side, though he does no more with it. “It’ll be fun.. and you won’t be forced into anything, I promise.” At the question, he glances back toward the center, calling out quietly yet much above the whisper he’s been using, “See. After swearing the oath. At least,” he picks up on Marie-Anna’s idea, “some other people, for safety.”

Like Astra, Martin says nothing. He’s still not entirely sure what to think of this entire affair, and feels no need to offer an opinion at this time. Shrugging his shoulders, the Head Boy sinks further into his hood. He frowns at Clavicle’s alternative name suggestion, and after clearing his throat, breaks his own silence, “Knowing only a few other people adds to the mystery.”

Clavicle says, “Laughing Coyote Sees the wisdom in that one’s way. She advises what is known as a insurgent cell structure. If captured no one can reveal the entire cell membership. Laughing Coyote thinks that person is wise.” He smiles “An enchanted scroll could be made…that by putting our mark, the maker would be hexed for revealing secrets.” ”

Eyes dart from person to person as they speak. Landon, however says nothing. It isn’t that he’s worried about remaining anonymous, he just doesn’t feel like talking, which is frequently the case. He straightens up, slightly, though, as he peers around at the other occupants of the room. The large robes will conceal his identity, though, standing straight up, or crouched down, he still won’t look like much more than an heap of fabric.

Clavicle Gravely points to the hooded figure who spoke of knowing only one or two names

Clementine Duncan continues to stay quiet, nodding along with those whom she agrees with and not with those she doesn’t. Of course, it isn’t very clear whether or not she is for or against secrecy. She keeps speaking to a minimum, as she would in class, really. The idea of picking names does appeal to her, even a little more then the idea of adventuring. She’s torn, and so, can’t speak out for herself. Secrecy is important. Someone should know who the members are, though. After Marie-Anna’s explanation and Laughing Coyote’s agreement, Clementine points to the hooded figure as well.

Gingerly, Olivia spies Evan’s hand and grasps onto it, feeling a bit of relief as she gives his hand a tight squeeze, perhaps a little harder than necessary. “Shouldn’t we know one another. Aren’t societies for comradery as well as their function?” Olivia speaks up, an unusual demonstration for the Hufflepuff girl. She steps back out from behind Evan and glance around, trying to discern the faces of those around her. All the hoods up make it difficult, as well as her own limited peripheral vision due to her own hood. “But we don’t have to–” she adds slowly, as if stating the desire for a bit less secrecy within would oust her from the group before she even found out just what kinds of things they would be finding out.

“Maybe we should have code names, like what he’s got!” Briony pipes up, perhaps a bit loudly. “And then we only call each other by them when we’re talking about matters here.” The girl beams at the idea and tries to make her way forward a bit, though she can’t make out anybody’s face at all, regardless of how she tries. It is simply too dark in the hall. The quiet atmosphere seems to have subsided just a bit as many of the folks present voice their opinions.

“Excellent points, one and all. Although…” Keelan pauses, musing it over for herself. “There is merit to taking on alter egos, though I would rather, I admit, it be knowing everyone or knowing noone. I… doubt there will be any matter of danger, as far as that is involved.” She looks at the figure in the mask, easier to pick out now than before, “I assure you that I have every intention of keeping this quite seperate from schoolwork.” Another twitchy smile, and she adjusts her glasses again, “Perhaps masks for us all, and code names? Then,” she smiles warmly, if only dimly visible, toward Olivia, “we may have a semblence of the comraderie so vital to a society, and retain our daily identities as well.” It doesn’t sound like a descision, and she looks about the room again. Somewhat accusatory comes, “Not all of you have spoken.”

Rhian Brecon has already spoken her opinion of what could be done, so now remains silent to see what others think of.

Marie-Anna Greyton remains silent, along with Rhian, seeing as she has already had her say.

Martin Foster is quite proud of his speaking now (he would have rather not spoken altogether). His lips curl into a small smirk behind his cloak. Oh the excitement!

Evan Geroff sqeezes back, only gently, as Olivia takes his hand, then holds on gently as well. “If it’s everything or none,” Evan pauses, voice pitched to address the group again, clarifying his opinion though he did speak before, “I’d rather know people. Names will be put to every-day faces eventually anyway, as we get to know each other here.”

Backing up another step, the would-be student looks to her right and then to her left, as if seeking out some sort of support from the few others who have said nothing. Shrugging her shoulders, Astra then chooses someone taller and close by, settling on one of the many hooded students. The person’s she’s randomly chosen is Martin, but she still is not aware of that fact and so tries to slink behind him or at least closer to him.

Clavicle Gravely watches Astra now…as the ‘student’ begins slinking about. “Laughing Coyote thinks some are frightened now. And before anything else is said, those who have had second thoughts should be allowed to leave. After they have left, Laughing Coyote thinks we should move as well, before the head mistress comes.”

Clementine Duncan retracted her pointing hand soon after jutting it out, but takes a hesitant step away from the wall, “I think it’ad be be’er if we all started off on an equal playin’ feild persay. If we were to know who eachother truly were. It might ruin that. Biases ..such ‘s class rankings… prefects and whatnot.” She thinks sadly to herself that she’s going to end up having to have some type of bird-mask, what with her nose. Her long arms cross tightly under her cloak. Behind her hood, she blushes hard, not having really paid enough attention to what she just said.

Stepping even closer, looking about as people begin to pipe up even more. “Doesn’t being here obliterate the biases? We were all of us invited, after all,” Olivia states in response to her classmate, though she doesn’t realise that she knows the female voice speaking. She pays little attention to those inching about, as if trying to get out, more interested in hearing what everyone has to say and how the gathering will form.

Clementine Duncan turns to Olivia, “Not entirely.” She motions to the hooded figure who is obviously the leader of this outfit to them at least, “But there are other biases, then that…” Her voice implies that she’s almost hurt that anyone disagreed with her, “You and I could hate eachother, you know, and right now we have no idea.”

Lyre King speaks up against Olivia’s statement. “Some people are unable to rise above their faults. These people will find something to pick at in their fellows, regardless of what honors have been placed on them. I say anonymity is key. Not knowing who could counter you also makes the misuse of whatever we learn here.. Dangerous.”

Clavicle says, “Hoka-Hey. Laughing Coyote sees truth in Anonymity.”"

“They should learn to overcome that,” Briony retorts, shaking her head. “But can’t we still have secret names? It would be so brilliant. And if we’re going to go on adventures with one another, I would certainly want to know who with so we can talk about it later,” she giggles a bit, then stifles herself. “Well, in private, of course. When you’re sure nobody else can discover the conversation. After all, secrecy.”

Clementine Duncan claps, hissing excitedly, “Oh! Oh, I do want a secret name. And a mask!”

Keelan Walsh waves a hand, “She won’t bother us, I’m sure.” Either by request or distraction, Keelan certainly had to the foresight to secure the area, “Even if she did, I am here. I’m sure you have all realized by now that I am a Professor?” A soft smirk, and then a softer sigh, “If anyone cares to leave, they should do so. Should you wish to return to us at a later date, you need just arrive.” Keelan waits, then, before continuing, “For now, as some of you seem concerned, let us don masks. A bit of a spell ought to do the trick–hmm, though it may be tricky for some of you. Think of something… interesting, and if you can’t make a mask, have someone help. You can all trust each other enough to help with this?” Her wand is flourished and the spell, “Cero personatus!” said. For Keelan, it is a crude wooden thing in the vague shape of a tiger, black paint striping across it. The mask materializes in the air in front of her and she has to catch it before it falls. Putting it on carefully so as to not disturb her hood, she still has to tie it on over the hood. This looks a touch silly, but oh well.

Clavicle Gravely pulls out his wand. And he attempts the spell. But not being an expert yet, His crude wooden thing looks like half spider, half coyote, half raven, and an odd resemblance to Astra Rathe in the chin. Now how did that happen. “Err.. Laughing Coyote…says Oops.”

Marie-Anna Greyton nods a little bit before pulling her wand out from her cloak. The same words used by Keelan are used by her as well, resulting in her own crude wooden mask. This mask is rather simple, in manner, simply that of a lioness.

Rhian Brecon nods as she listens to this and she casts herself a mask on her face. It’s an elegant thing, one that she wore years ago to a Holloween festival that was designed by her boyfriend when they first met. It displays a lioness’s face, but with appropriate eyeholes and doesn’t have a lower job so they could see Rhian‘s jaw move as she speaks. With the mask, she lowers her hood, glad to get that off her head.

“Cero personatus,” Olivia chants with her wand in hand, and a bland, rounded mask appears in her hand, with no eyeholes. “Hmm. That can’t be quite right. What did I do wrong?” she whispers to Evan, releasing her hand from his to examine the mask more closely. “Can we do it again if it doesn’t work quite right?” Olivia asks, disgust becoming more apparent with her failed first attempt at the mask. Charms are not her forte.

Clementine Duncan pulls out her wand, motioing with it but stopping short of attempting the spell. She hesitates before actually going through with it, “Cero personatus.” She squeaks, summoning up a puff of thin yellow feathers that fall right through her fingers, which were expecting a mask to fall into them. A bird mask, preferably. “I’m afraid I’m not very good at things like this…” She admits sheepishly, gulping, “Could someone maybe just make one for me?”

Evan Geroff slips his wand out of his pocket, pausing before raising what would usually be his off hand. Just as if in class, he practices the motion he saw Keelan use once, and the second time through repeats the spell. The mask he catches doesn’t quite resemble any animal in particular. It has ears that stick up, large round eyes, some sort of tuft over the chin, possibly a whisker or two unless those are just freckles, and the color in spots varies from yellow to orange to dark brown and green. “Hmm.” He looks at it for a moment, then over to Olivia. “I’ll be re-doing mine when this is over tonight. But you might want to see still. Don’t worry about the look for now, just concentrate on the eyes…?” It’s a possibility, anyway. And they can sit around together redoing both until they look right. Fun, neh? Olivia having released his hand does allow him to tie his mask on as he whispers to her, which he does.

With a flip of his wand, Landon breathes the spell out almost without speaking at all. IN his hand appears a simple, black mask. Rounded on top, but it covers the nose and cheek bones. Only the chin, mouth, and lower jaw are visible. Landon then proceeds to reach up his hood and fix the mask over his face. Once it is in place he pulls the hood back just enough so he can peer about properly, but not even so much as a blonde hair is visible.

Clavicle Gravely goes to grab the mask…but it scurries off to a corner. “Er… Double oops?”

Hovering behind the student she’s decided to stand behind, the ‘student’ heaves a very soft sigh at not having to speak. Listening quietly, she turns and draws out her wand, casting under her breath as murmurs the words. An additional spell ripples its power within the inner part that would cover her face. Slowly and methodically she works. While not as fast as some of the students, eventually Astra turns around donning her mask. Her chosen form is that of a mongoose.

Lyre King lifts his wand and calls out the spell in a clear voice. “Cero Personatus!” a thin, smooth mask settles in his hand, the barest shape of a face visible, like a half carved statue. In yellow paint, a broad four pointed star is painted on his left eye, while a huge red gash is painted across the mouth area, like an ancient greek comedy mask. Lyre slips the mask easily under his hood, and it hangs there as if by magic.

Keelan Walsh actually laughs slightly, “Yes, you can of course try it again if it is…” here she puts out down a foot to stop Clavicle’s oddly mobile mask. Crunch. “Unsatifactory. Just make sure to tap the old one with your wand to destroy it.” She bends, briefly, to scoop up the mess Clavicle made, and gives it a sharp rap, and it vanishes. “Laughing Coyote, you have a mask already,” she reminds him gently. Surveying the group through her tiger-mask eyes, she says, almost to herself, “We’ll need names.”

Marie-Anna Greyton ponders potential names, looking at the now masked students through the slitted lion eyes. The girl waits for inspiration to strike her as she glances around.

Performing the spell with surprising success — well, it at least resembles a mask shape, eye holes, stopping over the nose, plenty of space for her mouth to move, something very important for Briony. The mask she has conjured is a dark gray, and has whisker-like hairs pointing up all over it and ears rather shaped like a cat’s. Perhaps the mask is a bit heavy on the whiskers and light on any other resemblance for a cat. The odd mask suits Briony just fine, however, and she fixes the mask to her face and stands for a moment, attempting to think of a name for herself.

Clavicle says, “Laughing Coyote’s mask wants a mask too.” he settles back against the wall and grins a touch. The trickster part a role he is adopting far too well.”

Clementine Duncan wrinkles up her nose, trying the spell again deciding that her originaly vision was far too complicated. It’s after her third attempt that she gets her mask. As she slips it over her face, it’s no animal that she slides over her face, but a plant. A long wooden branch stems out for her nose with smaller twigs, knots, and knobs here and there. Clementine is now… a tree. She doesn’t push back her hood all the way, for fear that her wild hair might just really give her away.

Olivia Baxtor taps her first attempts at a mask and it vanishes quickly. She repeats the incantation and this time, the mask more closely resembles an actual mask. It is a half mask in an emerald green color, and this time has eye holes. She smiles a bit and holds it out, “Much better.” It is a decree rather than a statement and she fixes the mask to her face, glancing around as everyone else manages masks. “What name are you going to use?” she asks Evan quietly, being careful not to use his name, lest she give his identity away.

Rhian Brecon thinks to herself and tries to come up with a name. She knows that she is wearing a lioness’s face and so thinks she might use that to start a name. “Stalking Lioness?” she looks to the person next to her to see if that would be an appropriate name.

Clavicle Gravely does a small turn and walks about looking at the different masks. His mask is a rather realistic looking Coyote mask, Bought at a Carnival most likely. “Laughing Coyote is how I am known. ”

Landon thinks. . . He will have to think of something later. Right this very moment, he just stands, looking snazzy in his mask. He’s bad with thinking up things on the spot, and he doesn’t want to have to live with some stupid name because he just up and spit one out without putting any thought into it.

“Preferable to my rainbow colored cat-owl, I’m sure.” Evan smiles at Olivia, then glances down for a moment in thought. “I don’t know; something to do with a sphinx, perhaps. Do you have a name in mind?”

Clavicle says, “Think thank thunk, A coyote in a trunk, he runs around, adventure bound, until his tail is sunk.”"

“I think I’ll be … Fitzcordia,” the girl announces, rather proud at thinking of such a name. Briony beams as others finish their masks and fix them to their faces. “I wonder if we’ll be able to go on any adventures tonight. What happens if we’re late for curfew?” She doesn’t sound overly concerned as she voices these statements, but rather admires the few masks she is able to see. The girl is forced to push back her hood just a bit, to allow the whiskers on her mask to protrude up as they are wont to do.

“I haven’t thought of one yet,” Olivia responds, looking over Evan’s mask curiously and thinking of what names she could pick. “Maybe… maybe I could use…” Her voice trails off and she puts a finger to her chin thoughtfully. “How does Nanaea sound? I think I read it in a History book sometime. It’s kind of pretty, don’t you think?” The girl looks to her friend, pondering on her name suggestion and then voicing another. “No, Persephone. That’s very regal.” She gives a closed-mouth smile, having more or less decided on this name.

Sifting through her memory, Astra latches upon a name from her childhood. Speaking through her mask, her voice is warped and fractured, but still clearly understandable. Either the spell that created her mask is broken in some way or she’s added something to it to do precisely this, hide her voice as well as her face. “Rawhead and Bloody Bones,” scouring the legends and nightmares of childish boogeymen, “Rawhead am I.”

Clavicle Gravely ‘s attention suddenly turns at the Bloody Bones reference. His hand rubs at the snout a bit thoughtfully. A cousin here? Impossible.

Clementine Duncan looks to Rhian, nodding to the other girl’s choice of codename, “I can’t think of anything good…” She peers around through the eye-holes of her mask at the others, “I suppose… Hmm.” She turns back to the other girl, “I’m the Wand Tree.” She giggles a little.

Keelan Walsh ponders for a long moment, seemingly oblivous to the relative chaos as people chose masks and names. “Alright! Does everyone have a mask on, then?” Waiting for the murmur of assent, she presents a simple spell-”Lumos!” However, this seems to be the key to getting a proper amount of lighting, as the light flickers from the end of her wand to an overhead setting of the moon. Odd, that’s not a normal feature of this room. Still, suddenly the shadowy students take a more solid form, and masks are thrown into compartively bright moonlight. “I do believe it’s time to introduce ourselves. I am known as Bengale.” No kidding.

Evan Geroff nods once to her decision. “Persephone. I like it.” He stops, back to his own thoughts, whispering to her off and on as he goes. “I just don’t know what to place with ‘Sphinx..’” “Towering, Mighty.. Orange.. Turquiose?..” His whispering trails off as Keelan draws the group together again, with a final murmur to Olivia, “Perhaps that will be good enough.” He’ll wait to actually introduce himself, give him another minute at least to be sure.

Rhian Brecon nods as she finally sees everyone in full light as much as she can at least witht he masks. Her’s is starting to get annoying, but she’ll live with it. “I am Stalking Lioness, or Lioness for short…” She looks around when it comes to her turn to introducing herself.

Keelan Walsh adds, “If we’re late for curfew, I expect you’ll do your best to avoid detection,” with a smirk.

“What about just Turquoise?” the girl suggests quickly before Keelan speaks. She watches with interest, and before very long, it’s her own turn. “I’m Persephone,” she states rather quietly, then glances around at others as they begin to share their names. Almost as if it’s a reaction, she reaches towards Evan’s hand, still slightly nervous as she hears someone’s voice, which has clearly been altered, and which sounds rather frightening. Or perhaps it is just that Olivia is easily frightened.

Clavicle says, “And that would be a secret passage?” he asks. As he tilts his head out, and aer pokes out to listen toward the woman. “Is that something we see tonight?”

Lyre King thinks quietly for a moment, pondering the image presented by his mask. “I suppose… The Harlequin Jack will do. I am Jack Harlequin.” His mask has an eerie, puppetlike smile, and strangely fits this title.

Landon decides that he doesn’t want just eh plain black mask so he taps the side of it and the sides instantly flair out, becoming leaf-like, and the mask turns a vibrant shade of leaf-green. His forehead, nose, and the upper part of his cheeks are covered, but his mouth is free for speaking. The bright green tones of the mask seem to be reflected in Landon‘s pale skin, though because his chin, lower cheeks, and jaw pick it up, disguising his skin tone. A slight smile graces his features. A slightly mischievous one, too. It is gone as quickly as it appeared, though. He has decided on the name Puck! After the adventurous forest spirit! When it is his turn to speak, he does for the first time, but he doesn’t say much. He points to himself and says “Puck.”

Now that there is enough light to see by, Astra takes in the sight of the students. She too is dressed in the plain black school robes of a student and a hooded cloak of the same shade. Poking out from under the hood, her mongoose mask is quite visible and she turns her head to look over those assembled. “I am Rawhead.” As before, her voice is warped by magic but the words are unmistakable.

Clementine Duncan toys with the rims of her hood, as if torn still on whether or not to remove it. “I’m the Wand Tree.” She introduces herself with a light curtsey. She crosses her arms once more, keeping her hood up over her massive hair.

Marie-Anna Greyton is of the same thought as Landon is about her mask. Before the light comes out she quietly disperses of her current mask before repeating the motion to create a new mask, which turns out to be similar in appearance to that of a mermaid, with feathers for hair floating in water. “I am Aquarius,” she introduces, hood still slightly pulled over her head, covering her hair.

Evan Geroff hesitates, taking one last second to think before announcing his name after Olivia does hers. “I’m Turquiose the Sphinx,” he states, not quite willing to give that up and just be a color, “but will response simply to Turquoise.” And he’s prepared for everyone to just forget the Sphinx part. It’s for his own benefit only. As Olivia reaches he slips his hand back around hers, offering another quick squeeze simply to say “hello again” as any smile at her would be effectively hidden by his rainbow cat-owl mask. He will have to redo it.

“Call me Fitzcordia, please,” Briony announces with a giggle and then stifles herself with a cough, attempting to appear serious as many of the others are. She watches with interest as the others announce their chosen ‘code names’. Briony is having a very difficult time disguising her sheer excitement at the whole thing. Secret names, masks and adventures? It pretty much has made the Gryffindor’s year.

Kelly Pantall seems to be quietly dwelling near the fringes of the group, expression hidden behind her generic mask – her emotions, however, are clearly expressed by her abrupt movements, turning often to peer over her shoulder with an uncharacteristic edginess. Of course, if they’re endeavoring to be anonymous, being uncharacteristic is probably a good start. When she speaks, however, it is with a loud and clear tone. “…I’m Marie Jeanette.” Something seems to be nagging at her for a moment, and she can’t help but offer further explanation. “You know, like that Ripper victim. She was the most interesting.” Because talking about Jack the Ripper is really anonymous. Yay, she wins.

Bengale nods as each of the masked figures speaks, a smile just barely visible through the mouth of her mask. “Tonight we shall not discover any secret passage ways… first I need to know that I can trust you, one and all. In my past,” she gestures with her hands, “a grand secret was lost forever because formarly trustworthy persons let it out to too many people…” It almost seems as if the mask itself grimaces. “A secret is no longer a secret if the world finds out.” She shakes her head, suddenly grim again.

Marie Jeanette widens her eyes noticeably behind the thin slits offered by her generic pale mask before looking down at the ground, slipping back even further, trying to avoid notice. She gently nudges whoever happens to be closest to her, leaning across and whispering quietly, “So, that means we can tell a couple of people, right? I mean, what if someone asks? It doesn’t count as me telling if someone asks, right?”

Aquarius happens to be not too far from Marie Jeanette. “No,” she hisses. “You tell no one, even if someone asks. Not even if you suspect them to be a member,” is stated before she turns to Bengale and nods a little, listening again.

“Should we take an oath?” the girl suggests, looking around with slowly adjusting eyes at all the masks. She has ideas that she might recognize a few of the people present, but lest she break secrecy, she doesn’t mention anything, standing close to Evan, and trying to stay away from the person with the rather sounding voice. “Maybe one of those promises that you can’t break?” Persephone looks to the person in charge, Bengale, hopefully.

Bengale raises her eyebrows behind her mask, “Aquarius is right, Marie, the S.E.A,” Bengale is not about to be saying ‘sea’ all of the time as though they were marine oriented, “is a secret society. If inquiries are made by anyone–even Professors– make up a story about a knitting club, Gobstones club, study group… something everyday.” She looks at Persephone, “Ah… an unbreakable vow is a bit steep–” not to mention rather over Keelan’s head, “However, an oath?” She looks around, and this time her mask does change expression. Can a tiger look inquisitive? It certainly tries, “What does everyone think?” She’s trying very hard not to be in charge.

“Not an Unbreakable Vow!” Marie Jeanette shrieks, eyes widening even further, jumping back from Persephone in whichever direction she can. “What happens if you try real hard to keep it a secret, but you just can’t, and you die? That would be horrible. I don’t want to die.” Her eyes seek out someone who will comfort her, assure her that she’s not going to die, though her panic is considerable and she doesn’t look like she can easily be reassured. “Well… well, I just don’t want to die. That would be awful. And what if it’s someone real important that asks you, not important like a Professor, important like…” she appears to be trying to think of anyone in Hogwarts more important than a professor. “You know, someone real, real important?”

Aquarius eyes Marie, again. “It’s a secret, Marie. Secrets don’t get told, particullarly one of such importance as this,” she notes. “A group is only as strong as it’s weakest link, will you be that link?” she enquires in a challenging voice. Indeed, will Marie Jeanette be the weakest link? No matter the answer to that question her attention is turned to Bengale, again. “I think an oath is a good idea.”

Biting her tongue over what she’s thinking about an oath, Rawhead mulls the situation over until there is the yell from Marie Jeanette. “Oh don’t be silly,” the so-called student speaks. Gathering up her own words, what she really is doing is trying to recall how she spoke as a younger student, “No one is going to make us recite an Unbreakable Vow in a group like this. We aren’t a bunch of dark wizards.”

For the first time all night, Turquoise actually is a bit hesitant. He promised this wouldn’t get them in trouble, coming.. so how strong an oath are they about to take, and what could be the future consequences? He hadn’t even known anything about the group before tonight. “An oath certainly ought to keep it secret,” he replies to Keelan. It is being led by a professor after all – she’d know what was OK. “If what we do is of that importance, then yes.”

“An oath is perfectly fine by me,” spoke the one with the fox mask. Leon Fox peered through the narrow slits in his mask, gazing at the rest of the gathering. “And we can always use…what’re they called? Those memory charms to make those we suspect of being too weak…simply forget about the S.E.A. Couldn’t we?”

Although someone calmed by the words, Marie Jeanette seems to still be rather suspicious. “If I was a Dark Wizard, I’d tell people I wasn’t too.” The logic seems perfectly evident to her, even if no one else can comprehend it, and she folds her arms across her chest grumpily. “Okay, I’ll try to keep it secret, but if someone real, real, REAL important asks me about it, I might accidentally tell. But only if they’re real, real, REAL important. Like, more important than a professor. More important than the Head Boy, even.”

Clavicle says, “I suspect a charm could be made to hex an oathbreaker with a terrible case of the Bat Bogey Hex.” He loves that hex. “I can devise an alteration, if you trust me to try?”"

“I don’t know that I’d like to take one of those anyway. You never know what’s going to happen,” Fitzcordia responds to the suggestion of the unbreakable vow. “Maybe just a really stern promise will do the job.” She hopes so, anyway, and looks around as eveyrone puts in their choices. “I, for one, am willing to keep it entirely secret.” She nods decisively, her whiskers swaying as she does so.

Aquarius nods a little bit. “I’m with Fitz,” she states. “I’ll take whatever oath is asked of me, and I’ll keep it a secret, in it’s entirety…” her tone is low as she speaks, but all the same, she says it.

Bengale snorts, rather tigerishly, “There will be no obliviating of S.E.A members who wish to discontinue their enrollment in the society.” Her head shakes, “No, a spoken oath at the most. Should it be broken… oh for goodness sake.” The woman is getting a bit irritated, and it’s obvious, “When I say that a secret is to remain a secret I am not suggesting hexing, cursing, charming, or otherwise harming someone who can’t keep it. I merely wished to impress upon all of you the importance of not blabbing around the school the location of any secret passage ways or rooms. Lest you wish to suddenly find our adventures turned into necking rooms.” Another shake of her head, “That’s not the spirit at all. Your word is all I require. I’m sure that simply revoking the right to join in our adventures and restricting access to former secrets would suffice.” Goodness.

“We’ll just have to promise really hard to keep it secret.” The girl nods as she looks from person to person, many of whom seem to be voicing the same opinion. “I hope everyone wants to have the same fun. It wouldn’t be as fun if someone told the secret,” she comments, looking up at Evan with a grin. “You’ll have to make sure I keep the secret, E– Turquoise,” she tells him giving his hand a ginger squeeze again. Persephone smiles closed-mouthed at everyone.

Marie Jeanette seems positively mortified at the idea that telling would turn the secret passages into necking rooms, and she puts her hands on her hips and stands up all the straighter as evidence of how affronted she is. “I wouldn’t tell anyone who would do something GROSS in there.” The pitch of her voice as well as the volume is raised considerably at this point. “I said I’d only tell someone REAL, REAL, REAL important. More important than, than the Head Boy.” And the unspoken point here is that there are so few people more important than the Head Boy of a school that it is pretty much impossible that any of them would be asking Marie about the secret places. “And none of them would tell. Or… or do yicky things.”

Turquoise nods slightly at Bengale. It sounds much less worrisome the way she describes it than with all the students jumping to ‘we’ll kill you if you tell’ level conclusions. And the way she described it works for him. “I don’t mind giving my word, I have no intention of telling.” Turning, he grins back at Olivia, and perhaps part of the movement could even be seen through the mouth-hole. “Of course. We’ll watch each other, Persephone.”

Rocking up on her toes again, Rawhead sighs greatly and then drop back onto her heels. “I’m quite happy just giving my word not to purposely reveal the secret. I don’t want to have to worry about hexes and spells and charms.” Smiling behind her mask, she again looks around to those assembled before adding a nod to Bengale.

Clavicle says, “Upon my word I swear this secret shall be safe with me.” he states with a formal bow. ”

Bengale smiles again, and relaxes visibily. “I, too, give my solemn vow,” she can’t help but make it sound flashier that it is, “to hold the secret of S.E.A’s adventures and discoveries in my heart of hearts and not to tell a soul outside the confines of our meetings.” She puts her hand up to her chest and nods her head, but seems content to let everyone make the promise in their own way.

“I’ll keep the secret, I promise,” Persephone ventures, looking as many people seem to be volunteering their word in their own ways. “If we happen to know of someone here, can we chat with them about it at all outside?” she asks, just to make sure how far she must go to keep this secret concealed.

Aquarius speaks up now. “I swear to hold the secret of the S.E.A close and let no one know of our adventures,” she notes in a voice clear enough to be heard by all. With that she looks around at the rest of the gathered masks.

Clavicle says, “I ask for one Caveat to this oath….”

Fitzcordia nods, popping her right hand up and waving it a bit. “The secret is safe with me!” She looks around, crossing her arms and smiles brilliantly at those around her. “I can’t wait to begin adventuring, can you?” she comments to the person to her left, a quiet giggle escaping from her lips as the second year can hardly stand still.

Clavicle says, “In the event our adventures lead to something dangerous, or a life is in danger, I ask permission to bring the appropriate professor in for assistance.”"

Bengale blinks, but sounds slightly amused, “Is that so, Laughing Coyote? After you have made it, you look for a way out?” As he explains, she frowns, “You think I would allow such a situation to arise? You think I would not be able to handle it?” Actually, she sounds rather offended and angry.

“I vow not to share any of the secrets of the S.E.A., or tell a soul of our adventures. Unless they’re real, real, REAL important. The soul, not the secrets. And, you know, if they ask me. I won’t just randomly tell people. Well, not on purpose.” Guess who. Marie Jeanette looks around, seeking approval from someone, spying someone who has a prefectly or professorly vibe to approve of her vow.

Leon ,who from his last speaking had since gone quiet, speaks up again. “I vow to keep the secret of the S.E.A.” The boy then proceeds to visibly bite his tongue and fade back into the group of people–though he did pass a glance towards Clavicle just prior to his receeding.

Turquoise bows slightly as he begins his own vow of secrecy. “I solemnly promise not to break the secret of..” hearing Clavicle, he pauses in the middle with an attempted reassurance. “It isn’t that you are doubted, by anyone, I’m sure. It’s just.. isn’t it better to have it in there, knowing it won’t ever be needed, just for safety?”

Clavicle says, “Adventure sometimes leads to the unexpected My dear Bengale. Especially in the forest. ”

Startled into surprise, Rawhead doesn’t say anything more until Bengale speaks. “I think we’re going to be okay. Adventure is fun, but I don’t think that we’d do anything stupidly dangerous.” Tapping her foot nervously, she looks over her shoulder to look out for anyone who might be coming. “I think Bengale will take measures to make sure we’re okay. Why else have the club?” The mongoose-masked person tries to express her support with her tone alone, not having facial expressions to fall back on.

Bengale is beyond cross, “I am a Professor and I damn well know that adventure leads to the unexpected. Especially in the forest. I listened to a girl’s dying screams in that forest, boy.” The sneer on her face is audible in her tone, “Do not lecture me, any of you, on that prospect. Should it come to the matter of safety, I am sure we are all able to tell the difference between keeping an adventure and saving a life.” She’s a bit venemous, fists clenched. Rather a harsh reaction to a twelve year old’s innocent query.

Persephone gasps, clenching Evan’s hand rather hard as she watches Bengale lays into Coyote boy a bit, looking up at Turquoise in shock. Now she is nearly certain she knows who it is, though she wouldn’t dare to state out loud just who. Secrecy, after all. “Oh, my, I imagine it’s a bad idea to get her angry. I can’t imagine why he chose to speak to a professor that way!” Persephone whispers to Evan, unable to conceal the shock on her face, though part of it is hidden by the mask.

Quivering from head to toe, Rawhead stands there and listens to Bengale’s lecturing words. Struggling at hearing what the woman has seen, she stands there helplessly and decides the better course of action is to keep silent. Shivering under her plain woolen cloak she pulls it tightly around herself.

Clavicle Gravely shrugs and just shuts up.

Leon winces outwardly, his head turning quickly to pass a constricted gaze around the group again before he snuck around people, worming his way behind the people closest Bengale–the tiger mask suited her greatly. Vicious. Ultimately, the boy wound up behind Rawhead, peering out just over her shoulder.

Turquoise takes a careful step back, his hand tightening also, regretting having spoken up in his attempt to smoothe things over. “Does seem that way,” he whispers to Olivia, looking first at her and then back down the hall, away from the group, in the direction the two had originally walked in from. His expression, of course, is completely unreadable due to the mask. “But I..” he pauses, to make sure his voice will NOT carry anywhere beyond his companion, “I think.. especially seeing this.. he may be right. Even though we don’t expect anything to happen here. We’re not a tiny group.. harder to keep track of perhaps.. and I’ve heard stories..” He shrugs, pausing, not daring to say anything louder and mostly just curious as to Olivia’s reaction. Will she she his point, or has he begun to take this far too seriously?

What an anticlimactic end to what could have been an interesting show. Student versus Professor. Fitzcordia had never seen anything like that before, but finding that the confrontation is now over, she returns to the idea of why she is here to begin with — adventures! “So, will we be able to go on an adventure tonight? Or do we have to wait until we get — er, well — the sign?”

Bengale just breathes for a moment, struggling to regain her composure. It isn’t often that she explodes as such, and much more rarely that she does so in the sight of people she does not know very well. So it’s a long moment in which her breathing slows and she shuts her eyes. When she speaks again, her voice is thin, “Suffice to say that I am prepared.” Her expression, what little of it is visible, is closed. “And that before any of us were to take a journey in which there would be a slightest chance of such danger, we would also be prepated. I am not stupid,” her voice is even, hollow, and she addressed the assembled students, “I know some of you are young yet. I assure you I will not be placing you in harms way just for the sake of adventure. If you are to be members, you must trust me to know what I am doing.” A small pause, “I don’t know, Fitzcordia, whether you are ready for adventure tonight.” Or, her tone suggests, whether she is currently up to it.

“What have you heard?” Persephone asks, her voice raising a bit as she leans away from him a small bit, trying to get a good look at his face. “We’ll be alright, of course, with the teacher there.” She says this almost as if to calm herself down, though her grip on his hand could hardly get much harder, signifying that she doesn’t entirely feel at ease. Hasn’t she been told to lighten up a bit, though? Persephone is trying, at the very least.

“Oh, alright,” Fitzcordia answers, the disappointment in her voice very apparent, but she says nothing to question the decision otherwise. After all, Fitzcordia had seen what Bengale was capable of, and she certainly did not want to be subjected to it. “I’m so excited to see what our first adventure will be,” she mentions to the person on her right, though none of the people around her seem very interested in responding to her comments, however excited she may be.

Turquoise shakes his head faintly – that, at least, can be seen, more than just his eyes and part of his mouth. He looks straight at Olivia, so she can see at least that much of his face, though at the same time raising a finger to his lips. “Things happen, that’s all..” he whispers back. “Nothing I’ve seen.. nothing about the professor. Of course she does know what she’s doing. It was just such a harmless request, no reason not to grant it once it had been asked, common sense says we’d better be doing it either way.” He turns his masked face away for just a moment, looking back down the hall one more time, and shrugs. It wasn’t so important yet that he wants to turn and leave, certainly not after getting Olivia here. So he simply turns back and tightens his fingers around her hand quickly. “If I ever think there’s real danger, I’ll let you know, and I’ll take care of you. Until then, let’s enjoy it.”

“Every teacher here is quite capable, otherwise they wouldn’t be teaching here at all!” Rawhead speaks more to herself and her immediate companions, that being Leon Fox and she gives a little shrug. “Don’t worry,” she speaks to Leon, “We’re going to be okay. No one is in any danger and I doubt that we will be. The teachers are here to take care of us, not kill us.”

Clavicle Gravely moves back against the wall and lets the hood come over him again. He doesn’t exactly know what he said this time, but apparently it was bad enough to scare him something fierce. “I apologize.” he murmurs. “I didn’t mean to offend or imply any inability on your part. More, I was merely… making an admission that sometimes we don’t know. Something I am sure you are aware, founding this club as you are. Rather, i was attempting to assure you, that pride and hubris would not stay my tongue should others need to be made informed for the safety of the founder and the memebers in the event of an unforseen emergency. Last semester…I witnessed the effects of such an act. It endangered friends of mine. I will follow your lead…of course.” he tries to find a shadowed recess, to slink back into.

“I’m not worried about the adventures at all. I’m gonna be asking Professor Rathe about extra Defense tutoring–so I can get ahead in her class. I plan to do well.” Leon pauses in his whispering, finally moving from babble to his point, “I’m just… …afraid the tiger’ll act like a real one and start biting people’s faces off.” The fox-masked boy dipped more behind his ‘shield’ for a moment, his feet tired of keeping his heels elevated.

Lifting a hand to the mouth of her mask, Rawhead suppresses a laugh as Leon Fox speaks to her. “Oh I doubt that Bengale will do that. She just wants us all to know that she can take care of us and that we won’t get into anything too sticky.” “It seems like it will be a grand time, don’t you think?”

“Well, alright,” Persephone concedes and smiles a bit at Evan and looks up. What time is it? Likely later than curfew, but Persephone finds it hard to be worried with a Professor present. After all, couldn’t she get a hall pass if she truly needed one? The girl says nothing, rather hesitant to ask for such a thing when she’s supposed to be adventurous and let her curiosity be her guide rather than rules.

Bengale sets her shoulders back, suddenly resolute to be cheerful (which is a horrible condition for Keelan). The Professor says in a rather falsely steady voice(but it does the trick), “You know, I have just remembered a semi-secret. Some of you may know.” A forced smile and the mask looks rather.. grimacey still. “However, with our merry attire.” Later, it will occur to Keelan that she has never before said anything remotely as stupid as ‘merry attire’, but for now she just doesn’t want all her precious S.E.A kids to think she’s a monster. “and our new names, we should cavort,” another unKeelanish word, but she’s had her fair share of silly stories where the characters talk as such, “through the halls and down to the cellars where a painting awaits our fair touch.” Gag. A pause, and then, “Besides, being Bengale is hungry work. Follow me, oh secrety society members. And recall the vanishing stair on the third staircase to the left because I’d hate to have to rescue you so soon.” She starts off without much look back.

A long, meandering carpet (dry and hooded) of red velvet leads from the main entrance of the castle toward a surprisingly small, off-white carnival tent that has been erected upon the front lawn. Though it looks hardly large enough for one person to stand in from the outside, the inside of the tent is amazingly spacious. Nearly as big as the qudditch pitch, well-lit, and lavishly decorated in appealing shades of green and cream, the inside of the tent is pleasantly warm, and the grass and soil underfoot is solid and dry despite what ever the weather might be outside.

The room has been divided in to four nearly equal quarters, each meant to serve a different purpose. The southeast corner of the pavilion has been divided off in to several large, round tables each flanked by a half-dozen chairs and cloaked by off-white tablecloths. A large centerpiece of summer lilies decorates each table, and there is a small package of every-flavor beans at each place-sitting. The southwest corner is also filled with tables, but these are much longer. Almost as if the house tables from the great hall had been brought out on to the lawn, and decorated with similar accents to the more intimate tables east of them, these long tables have no chairs. Instead, they’re laden down with food. Large platters of finger foods spread across each table, in the form of crackers, cheeses, pocket breads and delicatessen meats of exotic varieties, a feast designed to be consumed without the benefit of utensils. The deserts are likewise finger-friendly, consisting of brownies, biscuits, and tarts. Disposable plates and napkins are provided in plenty, as are bins for rubbish, and at each end of each serving table is a large bowl of quick-clean potion and an ever-dry towel for proper hand washing.

The northeast quarter of the ten has been given to a large, open space for dancing, and an a small orchestra of enchanted, floating instruments that play a variety of cheery tunes without the benefit anyone holding them. The northwest quarter is filled with a small brevy of carnival-style games, each manned by a witch or wizard from the village of Hogsmeade. Small trinkets are available from a games that cost a knut or two (“toss the ring on a butterbeer bottle”, or the “dunk the Gringotts goblin” booth), while larger prizes may be won from games that cost up to a sickle (“arm wrestle a security troll”, or the “unstick the ever-sticking charm” booth). As promised, there are is a booth being run where students may pay two knuts to have the chance and throw confiscated footware through a vanishing hoop. Two well-trained security trolls and two Gringotts goblins stand at the entrance of the tent to ensure that everyone is blissfully barefoot.

Perhaps befitting the Minister’s son, Evan Geroff walks in, black robes, light catching and richly decorated, showing off his tall figure. On his arm is Olivia Baxtor, and his gaze moves between her and the social set-up before him, as he both admires the event and continues a conversation with her. “They said they would be confisticating any shoes worn.. I suppose one of the professors may be watching, or perhaps they’ve got a charm..” “Look at this! They’ve outdone themselves. And it’s lovely weather.” His final comment for the moment comes as he points, with his free hand and a smile, toward the instruments. “Do you think they take requests?”

Melvina Prichard strolls in to the tent with a fairly amused smirk playing across her lips. Her emerald robes shimmering, her wide-brimmed hat resting cock-eyed upon her head, laying somewhat absently against her tightly-bound, silver bun. “Well, yes, let’s see this off then, shall we?” She doesn’t make it more than a few steps inside, however, before one of the goblins at door steps in front of her. Lifting one claw-heavy fist to cover his mouth, the goblin clears his throat in a suggestive manner before glancing down at Melvina‘s feet. Upon which her boots still reside. “Oh, silly me,” she chides herself, with a grin. “Rule are rules, madam,” the goblin responds, motioning for the security troll to offer the headmistress an arm to lean on as she kicks her shoes off. “Of course, dear. Of course. There you go.” And the goblin nods, with a fangy grin, collecting up Melvina‘s boots and placing them in the box for the vanishing hoop. “Perhaps we should charge extra for the honor of vanishing the headmistress’ boots,” the goblin muses.

Saphia Bona is one of the first to attend, walking alongside Clavicle Gravely with a cheerful smile on her face, although like many children in these sorts of events, they walk together but none the less apart. She chats with him happily about the event, but there’s still little change from the sight of them walking down a school corridor other than the fact that both of them are wearing much fancier robes. And no shoes. As Saphia enters the tent, she becomes impossibly giggly, having never seen this sort of magic before. Oh, she’d read about it, of course, but never seen it. “Oh… oh my. Clavicle, this is amazing!”

Stepping out to the affair wide eyed and the most dressed up he has ever been in his short life Louis holds his walking can under one arm as he steps onto the front lawn in his bare feet. “Brilliant job they have done with the place Alex, don’t you think?” He comments to Alexandra.

“Oh, I don’t know. I hope so; perhaps we’ll get a good selection of music.” Olivia giggles a bit, the festive appearance of the front lawn brightening her spirits and making her forget that she is even barefoot. “When do you think we’ll be able to start tossing shoes? I do hope I’ll be able to get someone’s that I know. Wouldn’t that be funny?” She laughs a bit again and looks all around here, finding that there is almost too much to look at all at once.

Lenore Pantall wanders in, rather alone and at a sort of gait that would indicate that it is entirely possible that she has wandered here by accident – as she approaches the tent, she lets out a loud shriek as one of the trolls grabs her arm and points, wordlessly, to her dainty white boots. She removes them silently, offering only a terrified whimper, and allows one of the goblins to take them over to the vanishing hoop. Under her breath, she murmurs, “They were expensive shoes!” before wandering over to one of the tables, where she half-conceals herself from the crowd. See, this is why she doesn’t like socials.

Briony Wexler strides in on Albert’s arm, looking quite proud of herself. Briony had secured an ‘older man’ as her date to the Social. She glances aroud at all the others in the room, examining the various people’s dressrobes, trying to figure whether hers are better or theirs. Surely hers would be considered better; after all, her mother had made them! The girl beams quite prettily as the two of them stride in, saying very little for the time being, taking in the atmosphere.

“You did that on purpose,” Riley accuses Melvina, his arms folded across his chest in a decidedly annoyed sort of way. He doesn’t keep his arms folded for long, however, as the motion pushes the ungodly ruffle decorating his chest in to his face in a distasteful way. He doesn’t bother with waiting for her response, however, instead frogmarching toward the round sitting tables. His cheeks already red from embaressment.

Clavicle Gravely walks along beside Saphia and nods a bit. “It is at that.” he chuckles. “Watch the ring toss, half those rings have bouncing charms on them.” he knows the tricks of a carnival. Clavicle is getting too tall for his age, taller then some teachers, he’s an ‘early grower’. But his robe is an alteration of his fromal spidery robe before. As he walks past the Mummy comes out of the Pyramid and waves at a goblin. The wolves raise their necks to howl as a stittched moon rrises over the pyramid. Druids pause their harvest rite to wave and smile carefully stitched smiles. And skeletons crowd at the catacomb entrance to curiously stare out at the people. At his throat the Skeleton tatoo pops up to look around…and raises it’s tophat to anyone passing by. But the boy, or rather, young man himself seems more focused on his date and their surroundings. “Want to try to dunk a gringotts man? May be your only chance.” he offers with a grin

Alexandra Leong nods as she enters the fray with Louis Harper, looking pretty in her pink dress and more feminine that she’s ever looked at school. She has her hand on Louis’s arm, looking a bit nervous. “Absolutely brilliant, Louis,” she agrees. Wiggling her toes as she steps on the lush lawn, Alexandra looks like she would much rather be running around, rolling on the grass, and making daisy chains than being all dressed up.

Stepping just as lightly and easily in bare feet as she does in shoes – perhaps more so, even – Eliza Marlowe lopes into the tent. One hand rests lightly on the arm of Geoffrey Ruzbin, a sixth-year Ravenclaw whose height just barely exceeds that of the lanky Head Girl, and whose black dress robes are impeccably crisp and well-tailored. “Niiice,” Eliza murmurs as she looks around the transformed lawn, a slow, appreciative grin spreading across her face. Her hand slips away from her escort’s arm – she hadn’t been holding on that tightly anyway – and Eliza turns to survey the crowd, easily looking over the tops of most of her fellow students’ heads. Geoffrey, a little confused but not offended by Eliza‘s behavior, simply follows along behind…pausing to steal a quick glance around the tent to see who has noticed that he is escorting the Head Girl. Nobody seems to notice except Caroline Kelsey, a sixth-year Hufflepuff, who shoots Geoffrey and Eliza a venomous look before turning pointedly away. Eliza continues on into the tent, saying, “Good day, ma’am,” and dipping her head in a quick bow to the headmistress as she edges around Melvina – the Head Girl is already safely barefoot and cleared to enter.

“Um, I guess it’s time to go in,” Gabriel says to Felicity as the pair makes their way across the front lawn. “It looks nice, doesn’t it? I mean it must have taken a lot of effort.” Gabriel must truly be nervous if he is commenting on decorations. But, Gabe was… Gabe was escorting a girl! Even though he’s spent so much time in feminine company, this was very nerve-wracking. How could he keep the small-talk up? Finally catching a glimpse of Briony with Albert, Gabriel looks to Felicity. “Want to… go talk to Briony?”

Martin Foster has never been comfortable in his black dress robes, but for once in his life he has a set that fits properly. Around his neck is a green tie that matches the Head Boy’s eye colour. Cheeks slightly reddened, Martin sideglances Marie-Anna Greyton–who is on his arm. “Uh… nice… dress… it’s–er–very nice…” he finally comments as his cheeks redden further. The two had met earlier, but he’d been relatively silent since their initial greeting as he hasn’t exactly been comfortable with Marie lately. “… you look very nice today.” Angelina wouldn’t mind him saying that about another girl, would she? His eyes narrow at the security goblins. “Great,” he mutters to himself.

“We’ll have to try later on. Do you have a favorite song to dance to?” Evan‘s attention shifts from the enchanted instruments over toward the games, examining each that he can see from where he is. “Likely as soon as they collect some.. do you think they will get many? I wouldn’t have, after being warned that they’d vanish.” Assuming she doesn’t object, however, he first steers toward the corner with the tables.. perhaps she’d like somewhere to put the flowers down, and they can always claim seats for later that way.

Clementine Duncan arrives in her hideous set of new dress robes, still quite tall even without the additional height of shoes. Her arm is linked with her date’s, a boy who in her opinion is a particularly ugly third year who happened to be taller then her… and happened to be the only person to ask her to go. His horrid looks do make her look a little better, though. The Ravenclaw does his best to try and coax at least a smile out of Clem, but the most she allows is a forced smirk to his see

Marie-Anna Greyton offers a little bit of a hint of a smile towards Martin. “Thank you,” is given in a polite tone to the Head Boy. “You like nice as well,” she states as she looks about the crowded area, brushing a ringlet to the side of her face as she does so. “Who would have thought there’d be so many people on the lawn at one time,” Marie chuckles with this.

Walking into the small tent slowly, and alone, Aisling O‘Cormac is amazed to find just how much bigger it is on the inside than on the outside. Taking in her surroundings slowly, gasping as she sees the self-playing instruments, she appears to be looking for someone. Spotting Lenore, trying to hide herself away, Aisling heads for her, navigating her way through the growing crowd. Going past the security goblin and troll, she gives a small nod, but that’s about it for her communication right now. Reaching Lenore eventually, she says, “Isn’t it impressive?”

Felicity Wexler frowns slightly at that, as Gabriel’s eyes dart across the room toward Briony. Her own following briefly, before exhaling a small huff and rather purposefully moving to slink her arm about her date’s, leaning close to him. “She seems fine on her own. Well, not on her own, I suppose, but fine never the less. Let’s go take a look at the games, hmn?”

“Oh, Gertrude and Helen and I used to pretend we were princesses and dance to mum’s — er — ah — well, the music thingy, and I heartily enjoyed that. I haven’t had much occasion to dance much since, though,” Olivia admits, glancing at the still empty dance floor momentarily. “Oh, perhaps we should sit here. It’s nice and close to the band, but we won’t have to worry about getting trod over as if we were in the middle there. What do you think?” She glances to the seats at the very outer edge and then looks to Evan.

Marching, chin up, into the tent, a small smirk plays on Suki‘s lips as she lazily places her arm around that of Shawn Astor, a seventh-year Slytherin with a skull so thick it’s surprising he remembers to breathe (though, he is heart-stoppingly good looking. But isn’t that to be expected of Suki?) The same could likely be said about Marshall Allyn, who follows Tallis Carter with a very vacant expression. “Tallis, darling,” Suki says, turning around. “You’re looking very nice today,” the girl says with a flourish. Smirking, Suki glances meaningfully down to her shod feet. “I knew we could get past those stupid trolls. No problem.” With a light laugh, Suki takes Shawn in the direction of the refreshments.

Lenore Pantall looks up at Aisling in slight alarm, then noiselessly shakes her head, waving a vague hand to indicate that as impressive as it may be, it does nothing to help her shyness. After a moment, she lowers her voice to barely audible, especially over the noise of the crowd – Aisling had better be able to lipread – and offers, “I came. Are you happy?”

“But why would I ever want to dunk a Gringotts goblin?” Saphia asks Clavicle, wide eyed. This kind of humor not only doesn’t appeal to her, she flat out fails to understand the humor in it. “Personally, I’m more interested in that one!” Saphia points to the ‘unsticking the ever-sticking charm’ booth, watching a bulky Gryffindor sixth year trying futilely to tug the decorative bar from its pole. “Look at them all, all clutching their arms. They think it’s a test of strength!” She puts her hand to her chin and soon is in classic puzzle-solving mode.

Adorned in his black dress robes (that he appears to be outgrowing slightly), Rafe DeWitt walks onto the lawn with Kelly Pantall on his arm. He peers out at the group with scrutiny and wrinkles his nose. “It smells like feet,” he comments to Kelly. And then he adds, “Your hair is very curly. Again.” He shrugs and approaches the goblins–shuffling his feet all the while. “I think your sister is here.” And then he glances around further, “I think my sister is here. Now’s your chance…”

Melvina Prichard passes her grandson an amused sort of look, one that hardly seems bothered by his accusation, before moving toward the band of floating self-playing instruments. Her expression terribly impressed. Making small fists with her toes in the grass, she watches amusedly as the hovering tuba belts out a fairly happy sounding blat almost as if to greet her.

Standing at the outer edge of the tables, Bonnie watches as the students file in, most of whom she is — thankfully — still taller than. “Afternoon, Melvina,” the Divination professor calls to the Headmistress as she glances around at the ever-filling lawn. “I should say this is proving to be very entertaining, don’t you think?” She laughs a bit as several students shriek as their shoes disappear. “Brilliant,” she whispers, her laugh subsiding a bit.

“Oh, okay,” Gabriel says, as he seems to brighten after this registers. Yes, games. That would be a good way to ease his nerves. With the girl latched to his arm, Gabriel smiles as he leads them to the aforementioned booth. “I think I could do this!” Gabe exclaims, pointing to the ring toss. Digging around in his pockets, Gabe pays for two games. The idea of winning a prize and then giving it to Felicity hasn’t occurred to him. “Good luck!” he says, handing her three rings and keeping three for himself.

Clavicle Gravely grins. “We’d need Guinevere’s guile, or acham’s razor for it. My wand is in my bunk. I didn’t think we’d need it. Still, if we could find a fulcrum….” he shrugs as he walks that way towards the booth… “I wo0nder if anyone has some oil?” he chuckles “I still feel a bit odd, dancing in the wrong field.” he chuckles. “Was kind of nice.” he waves when he hears Riley’s growl. “I think he’s related to a bear.” he says in a low whispered aside to Saphia.

“Thank you Marie,” Martin states with his lips curled into a forced smile. “I’m sure it will be an experience.” As the pair approaches the goblin, Martin discards his shoes merely by slipping them off. Then he bends down to the ground to assist Marie with hers. “Allow me…” His cheeks redden again.

Andy Carver strolls in, accompanied by Nellie Caldwell. Feeling a bit uncomfortable as they step into the overwhelming atmosphere, Andy quickly points to his bare feet, to please the goblin door steward. Nellie has been doing the talking, feeding him with the latest rumours. As Andy notices Felicity and Gabriel, who are walking over to the games he suddenly steers his company towards the other end of the room.

As Melvina approaches the self-playing instruments and the tuba bleats out a jazzy solo (in stark contrast to the classical music they’re playing normally) a wand flicks back into its pocket, and Darius Dwight sidles up to the headmistress, his everpresent grin in place, “I told it to do that,” he smiles. “How are you handling your new position, headmistress?”

Riley Markham passes a quiet glance toward Saphia and Clavicle as the come in, looking somewhat forlorn as he flops down in a chair and exhales a loud sort of sigh. Almost absently pulling his scarred foot up on to his opposite knee so he can pluck the pieces of grass that had gotten caught in the jagged edges.

“My chance? To do what? Break her fingers?” Kelly offers in quiet response to Rafe’s remark, wrinkling her nose distastefully and peering around, trying to find either indicated sister. “I don’t want to break anyone’s fingers in front of the Headmistress. She’s already caught me fighting once this year, I don’t think she’d accept ‘it’s her fault for letting me do it’ as an excuse.” The remark about the curliness of her curls is entirely ignored, except for a faint pink blush that colours her cheeks, and an amused shake of her head so her curls bounce. All in all, though, she seems entirely cheerful and happy to be there, if a little nervous.

Evan Geroff nods in agreement to Olivia, going so far as to rest his hand on the back of a chair. “Looks like a perfect spot. And not too far from anything, if we want to rest.” He pulls the chair partway from the table, looking at her – presumably offering it to her. “It doesn’t look like anyone is dancing yet; shall we stop here for a while, or take a look at the food, or the games perhaps?” And socialize, but there are people filtering into whatever direction they might choose.

Marie-Anna Greyton nods a little, though her own shoes for this particular appearance are nothing more than simple soft-soled shoes to match her outfit, on the chance that she forgot to remove them. “Thank you, Martin,” she states, blushing ever so slightly at this.

Still in the queue leading the students to the tent where the event occurs, David stands tall and upright , bearing a large smile as he looks at Katherine Nichols, the girl who invited him to the social. “Very impressive” he says to her, as they get nearer to the tent and begin to catch glimpses of what the afternoon is going to offer. David’s voice is barely audible amid the “Oooh!” and “Aahh” voiced by the other students discovering the setting of the event. “Look! There are games as well!” he says, getting increasingly excited as they get nearer to the tent. David is happy to be here, but feared a little that the event would only involve dancing…

Karina Sedgewick enters with Charles Harper, looking nice in her velvet dress. She is smiling an absolutely brilliant smile, full of unbridled happiness such as never seen on her face, at least not by this lot. Perhaps Charles is the reason, but either way, the couple looks surprisingly well matched. As the walk pass the security trolls, the Potions teacher takes a look at her bare feet. “I’m glad we remembered to put away our shoes at the Hogwarts gate, Charles,” she says to her date, laughing. “Even an Auror might have problems with our security measures…”

Aisling O‘Cormac nods somewhat cluelessly. “Yes.” she says. “Look at all these people! I mean, there’s the Head Boy, and over there the Head Girl, and, well, so many people I don’t even remember seeing from the Sorting! And they almost all have impressive dress robes, and there has to be some interesting things that will happen, and we’ll be here to see them!” Despite her apparent lack of clue towards Lenore’s discomfort, the girl is beginning to show some herself, babbling away and gripping her left plait tightly. One of the things that she neglects to mention, of course, is how out of place she feels, in her worn school robes rather than fancy new – or even old – dressrobes.

Felicity Wexler blinks as she’s handed the rings, though she can’t help but giggle. Obviously, the whole courting thing was relatively knew to Gabriel, and clearly he’d not read the many volumes of trashy, French romance that she had studied to be her guidebook on this, her maiden voyage in to her teenage years. Still, she adored a challenge, and she wouldn’t be put to anything less than the test. Giving a small grin, she turns and gives one of the rings a hurl. It takes a nice, long sail far right, however, causing her to give a terribly cute little pout.

Tale flies into sight, dropping a message to Martin Foster, then lifts up into the air and flies away.

Lenore Pantall is also wearing her school robes, which she indicates to Aisling with a wave of her hand, her pale cheeks colouring as she inspects each of the indicated people in turn. The fact that she slips behind Aisling, using the poor Hufflepuff girl as a human shield, as she registers the approach of Rafe and Kelly must be entirely coincidental. What reason would she have for hiding from them? Tapping the other girl’s shoulder to attract her attention, she offers the low murmur, “But what if the interesting things are bad and we all die?” There is a certain urgency to her voice, as if she is convinced that this will happen.

“Why thank you, Suki,” Tallis chimes in her formal party voice. “Marshall, assist me with my shoes,” she instructs authoritatively as she shoots a glare at the Goblin. The large seventh year does as he’s told and bends down, assisting his date. “Come Marshall, follow Suki.” Examining her best friend, she offers her a wicked smile, “Don’t you scandalous in red, my darling!” She pokes Marshall in the gut, “Tell Suki how beautiful she looks!” “Uh…?” Shaking her head and rolling her eyes in a slight huff, Tallis responds, “Never mind! Just go over there and talk to Shawn.” She pushes him towards Suki’s date.

Charles Harper chuckles softly with Karina on his arm dressed to the literal nines in his midnight blue dress robes lined with white fringes. A bit old fashioned but looking surprisingly well on the Auror. “That I would, I don’t believe I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to face one just yet luckily.” He says as he gives to Trolls a friendly nod. He takes a moment to scan the crowd and spots his son with a girl. “Ah there is Louis… who is that he is with there?”

Looking around for her friends, Briony spots Gabriel and Felicity over at the games and frowns a bit. Well, if they weren’t going to be sociable, why should she? She strides over to where Marie-Anna is standing with her date. “Hi, Marie-Anna,” the girl greets the prefect cheerfully. “Look, this is Albert. He’s a fourth-year, and he’s my date.” The girl grins and poses cutely with Albert, who still seems rather distracted. “Maybe we should go play games,” she states plainly, looking at the games, and she then drags Albert over there, intending to play the game next to where Gabe and Felicity were. She’d show them how happy she was to be there.

“Oh, Darius, dear!” Melvina exclaims, turning so that she can look toward the Wizo-Music Professor past her shoulder and afford him a warm smile. “Quite well. Quite well, indeed. And I could ask the same you, dear! How are you settling in? And these instruments, brilliant–I couldn’t have done better myself. Or nearly as well, for that matter. Quite fine, I say.”

“Yes! She’s right there. You could so break her fingers,” Rafe strokes his chin. “You’re tougher than her, anyways.” He takes off his shoes and then shrugs. “I guess you’re right, probably not good to make her mad. Don’t pet the burning bear–that’s what Mum always says. Oh… wait, no it’s always pet the burning bear?” After considering this, he takes off his shoes. “The dress is very… shiny.”

Every ruffle on Katherine Nichols‘s dress flutters as she bounces excitedly into the tent at her friend’s side. “Oh, look!” she giggles, reaching back to tug David along after her. “Yes, let’s try the games! Do you think we could dunk one of the goblins?” One primly gloved hand reaches out to snatch up a handful of Bertie Bott’s Beans as she passes a table. “Ooh, there’s Alex and Louis! Let’s see if they want to play, too! Oooh, hullo, Clem! Hullo Briony – ooh, I like your dress!” Bouncing from friend to friend on her way across the tent, Katherine is pinker and giddier by the moment.

Chuckling as Felicity’s ring misses, Gabriel shakes his head, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder as she pouts. “No, no, ‘City! You have to follow through on your throws! See, watch,” he says, tossing one ring. The ring makes it around the neck of a bottle–but barely. “I’ll help you,” he offers, making to take her hand and guide her next shot.

“Oh!” Clementine puts on a happy face as Rafe and Kelly arrive – just in case the two’s evening could be made better through her misery, as misery tends to have that effect on little monsters like them. Patting her date’s chest excitedly, she squeaks, “Let’s go play a game!” Grinning with new life, the puff instinctively walks on the balls of her feet as she takes him by the hand and tugs him towards the ‘Dunk the Gringotts Goblin’ booth.. not because it will be fun.. but because it will look like it’s fun, she wagers. Waving her free hand cheerfully to Kitty, she chimes, “We’re going to go play a game, too! C’mon!” She doesn’t seem to be planning on waiting for anyone to come along, though.

Darius Dwight smiles broadly and waves toward them proudly. “These are a very simple Wizo-Music charm… I think they have about ten classical pieces in them. Time consuming, though, I had to go through and play those ten pieces for each instrument. You owe me some overtime,” He winks to her, clearly jesting. “I’m eager to see how the third year students develop, to be honest. It will be wonderful to see them develop their talent, and then next year, learn some actual Wizo-Music…”

Clavicle Gravely stops Saphia and looks at Riley. “Would you stop acting like that and come on…this thing won’t be any fun without you.” he waves Riley over. “Come on.. let’s go around and see what there is to be seen.” he grins at Riley. “Come on.”

Louis Harper nods to a few of his housemates who have shown up and to Martin though briefly not to disturb the Head Boy and Marie-Anna. Turning back to Alex, Louis bites his lower lip just a bit nervously. “Would you like to dance or something?” The shaking in Louis‘s voice says it all. He’s never danced a day in his life.

“Alexandra Leong, one of his close friends, I do think,” Karina Sedgewick answers Charles. “One of my Hufflepuffs, actually. I thought I might have mentioned her?” Karina doesn’t seem to be paying too much attention to Charles’s interest in his son’s social affairs, dismissing it as something that Charles already knew. “Can I fetch you a drink?” she asks her date, instead of continuing with the topic of Louis, “I suppose I am officially the host here?”

“I think I’d like to play some games,” Olivia tells him and sets her bouquet down on her seat. “Maybe the dunk the goblin game, if I won’t get wet. I don’t want to get my dressrobes wet.” She nods and starts slowly walking over there, trying not to rub too closely up against anyone. “Evan? Where are you?” she calls above the crowd, unable to see her friend any longer as she still tries to make her way through the crowd. So many people!

Kassandra Verkooyen floats into the pavilion after she made Richard Terry linking his arm with hers. “Just for the entrance.” she assured with a smile. “It makes a good impression.” The goblin frowns as they pass without regarding him since the whole scene inside seems to attract both of them like a huge magnet. “Come. Let us meet Clavicle and Saphia, they are just over there where Riley is sitting and… cleaning his feet?”

“You’re welcome,” Martin flushes. The owl that delivers a message to Martin increases the redness in Martin‘s cheeks. Momentarily he smiles broadly, but then a frown begins to form on his face. He fights the uncomfortable frown that wants to take over his face. The entire situation is uncomfortable for him. Biting his lower lip, he offers Marie the most charming smile he can muster, but he can’t think of anything to say. Finally he resorts to scraping the bottom of the barrel. “How does your quidditch team look?” He offers Louis a weak smile and nod in greeting.

For whatever reason, Kelly does not look eager to leap on the girl and break her fingers, instead turning to Rafe with a slightly confused expression. “But the Headmistress is right there, and Morganna will get all angry,” not that anyone could really blame her, “and will kick up a fuss and then the Headmistress will want to know what happened and then I’ll get in even more trouble. No, no, if I’m going to break her fingers, I’m not going to do it tonight. Too many Professors around. And the Headmistress.” That logic applied, she seems to get rather distracted by Clementine as she notices her, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. “Is she avoiding me?” She asks quietly, peering after the girl vaguely. “I bet Clementine’s avoiding me.”

Aisling O‘Cormac, being the most subtle of girls as she is, bursts out laughing. “Die!” she splutters, before resuming a splinter of her calmness. “What could possibly happen that would result in us all dying?” she queries amusedly, beaming at Lenore. Perhaps a paranoia is the seat of her problems?

“Yes… yes of course. I remember now.” Charles turns his attention away from his son and back to Karina with a smile. “I do believe you are and yes I would love a drink!” Charles seems very good humoured today and its obviously all because of Karina. “A spot of Butterbeer might…. Oh! Or pumpkin juice if its being served. I haven’t had any in years.”

“Oh, well, I can’t really dance,” Alexandra says truthfully. “But, well, maybe we could… oh look, Kitty and David!” She waves at Kitty and David with obvious relief. “Maybe we can go and play the games? I heard you can dunk goblins, or something.” The small Hufflepuff stands on her tiptoes in an attempt to take a closer peek at the games.

Felicity Wexler blushes, brightly, as Gabriel moves to take her hand. She doesn’t resist, however. Quiet the contrary, in fact. Bowing her head slightly in a demure, slightly embarrassed sort of way, she allows Gabriel to guide her next throw. One which bounces over the butterbeer bottles, but comes much closer. “I almost got it that time!” She chirps, happily.

Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles a little uncomfortable chuckle before responding to the barrel scraping. “Rather good, actually, I’m quite pleased, so far,” is offered as she looks around and grins towards Briony. “Oh, there’s Kelly, I told her she’d look lovely,” is stated towards Martin, indeed, she too is barrel scraping.

“And get us some punch,” Suki calls over to the two bumbling fools, Shawn and Marshall. Now that those two oafs were out of their way (but wouldn’t they look nice in the photographs?), Suki crosses her arms. “Some frightening hideous dresses I’m seeing here, Tallis,” comments Suki as she scans the crowd. Of course, she glazes over the many spectacular dresses to point at one in particular, giggling. And then, Suki sees Katherine. Covering her mouth and laughing quite openly, Suki leans toward Tallis. “Looks like a pink marshmallow was let out of its packaging,” she says, taking her friend’s hand, hoping to guide them over to the girl.

Even though Nate Hunter was asked to the social by a girl, he refused to go with anyone, but he has conformed enough to dress up in his classic black dress robes. Why have a date when you can go stag? The third year has shown up without shoes on (yes, he walked through the castle without his shoes on), passes through security quickly, and walks up to Gabriel Goden. He offers his friend a lopsided smile, “Havin’ fun yet?” He winks.

“An attack by a Dark Wizard,” Lenore offers in the same quiet murmur, as if it was entirely obvious, and peers around vaguely. “Or Jack the Ripper. Kelly’s always harping on about Jack the Ripper, she’s probably going to will him into existance.” That simply stated, she clings at Aisling’s arm, rather tighter than would be necessary, as if the girl is a life raft or a human shield. Paranoia may be the origin of her problems, but when one lives with Kelly, paranoia becomes a part of your daily life.

Relief comes over Louis‘ face when Kitty and David arrive. “Yes! Games! Brilliant!” Answers Louis enthusiastically. Anything to stay away from dancing and possibly treading upon Alex’s poor bare feet. “Hello David, Kitty. Having fun?”

As Martin, Marie-Anna, and several other still-shod students linger by the entrance to the tent, Eliza Marlowe slides through a bit more quickly, clearing the way. A brief, “Hullo, Foster, Greyton,” all that she says, or has time to say, as she moves on into the tent. She notices the owl, and Martin’s sudden flush, but she gives him only a short, worried frown before she moves on. Geoffrey, still preening, is left behind for a moment, and scampers in a fairly undignified way to catch up to Eliza, who is already striding ahead. One of the Head Girl’s long arms sweeps down to scoop a casual handful of snacks up from a table as she passes, nodding her head in rhythm with the music.

Another nod is given to Olivia, but Evan pauses to reach for the Bertie Botts at his chosen spot at the table. If he opens them, it will look claimed, and he won’t have to worry about having a reserved seat next to his date. “I don’t think you’ll have to get wet; I’m surprised the goblins are willing, have you seen how..” in the midst of turning and heading toward the game, he realizes he has somehow lost her. Such a good escort he is! “..serious they usually are.. Olivia?” He has the advantage of being a growing fourteen year old, and can see over at least some people’s heads, by which means he proceeds to look around while angling back toward the dunking game.

Saphia Bona joins in with Clavicle, waving Riley over and doing her best not to look at his… remarkable… um, dress robes.

“Good riddance,” Rafe states. “She’s one of them. The pleasant ones.” He shudders momentarily at the thought of his housemates and then changes the subject. “Should we play a game or something?” And then, after glancing at the ground he offers, “We could go up to her… Clementine, I mean. It’s a party, she can’t exactly avoid us…”

“Almost!” he echoes, tossing his next ring, also missing. “Whoops,” he says, laughing and turning to Nate. “You made me miss!” he says, joking. Nodding, Gabriel looks to Felicity, who appears to be having a good enough time and glances back up to Nate. “Yeah, we’re having a good time,” he says with a grin. “Aren’t you going to try the ring toss? I bet I could win more prizes!” Gabe says excitedly.

Melvina Prichard grins, playfully, reaching out to pat Darius on the arm kindly. “Overtime, hmn? I suppose there are a few knuts I could spare laying about somewhere. Maybe I could share with you the profits made from vanishing my boots, hmn?” Her eyes sparkle as she nods, however, quite interested to hear about how the students were progressing. “Wonderful. Naturally, with as talented a musician as you directing them, I hardly doubt they’ll shine, but I’m pleased to know your prospects are high!”

“Yes! Let’s play some games!” replies David, still smiling and happily following Katherine. The boy waves at the other students he knows, letting out a “Riley!” or a “Saphia!” as he sees them, and actually tries to go and talk to them, but finally shrugs and mutters a “See you later!” as he surrenders to Katherine’s constant tugging. David also nods courteously to Kassandra, the other girl who invited him, but on the contrary to his previous friends, he does not make any efforts to stay any longer with her, as he still isn’t sure of what to think of that invitation. As he and Katherine meet Louis and Alexandra in front of the game stands, he waits contentedly for the others to choose what game to play.

Somewhere along the way, Katherine Nichols has picked up a handful of brownies, strewing crumbs across her spotlessly white gloves – but she does have enough to share, when Alexandra and Louis catch up. “Hullo!” she calls cheerfully, holding out the sweets for the others to share. “Want to try dunking a goblin? That looks like it would be more fun than the ring toss, and you can win better prizes from it, too. Wouldn’t you love one of those little birds, Alex?” Katherine points a crumb-covered finger up at the rack of prizes, where brightly-colored wooden birds flutter, set in motion by various enchantments.

“Yes! Punch!” Tallis raises a hand to her forehead. “Why on earth did I ask Marshall to come? Sure he has an excellent family and wonderful social ties, but Marshall Allyn?! The near-seven foot moron?! Disgraceful. Bad Tallis.” And then as Suki mentions Katherine, Tallis smirks. “Exactly. I do enjoy Kitty’s company.” As the two approach the young Hufflepuff girl, Tallis chimes in a rather high pitched baby-talk voice, “Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty…”

“Hi, Katherine,” Briony waves enthusiastically then turns to the game in front of her, not really paying attention to it. She whispers heatedly to Albert, something audible being about Felicity and her awful hair or something similar and stands with her arms crossed, glancing next to her discreetly as she watches her friend and her, ugh, cousin interact with their housemates.

Aisling O‘Cormac glances around quietly before turning back to Lenore. “But.” she says, then waits for a moment, considering her next move. “Wasn’t the last Ripper attack in 1888? In fact, all of them? What’s to worry about?” Thinking for a little bit, Aisling absently waves at some people she recognizes before continuing. “And why would a Dark Wizard attack Hogwarts, attack us?”

Clavicle Gravely waves to Kassandra and her date as well. He grins and bows a bit as he looks to Saphia, “Well any ideas on the unsticking of it?”

“Not really,” Kelly offers by way of a quiet response, peering about and trying to find Clementine – apparently she has misplaced her now – and fixing upon her a particularly potent glare. “I don’t like it when people avoid me. Even if they are nice.” She uses the word with a certain venom, as if there is very little that she could say that is much worse than that word. “What, is she afraid of me or something?” That fact that Clementine might be annoyed because the Gryffindor girl verbally abused her, belittled her and read her mail doesn’t seem to occur to her at all. “Hello, Miss Greyton!” She offers after a moment, suddenly distracted, looking up and waving at Marie-Anna, before looking for Clementine again with a similarly venomous expression.

“She looks very good,” Martin agrees as he glances around the tent. And then Eliza greets him–an out! “Eliza!” he calls as he drags Marie further into the tent. “Geoffrey…” he greets as he examines who he only assumes to be Eliza’s date. He raises an eyebrow questioningly, but says nothing. “Uh… you know Miss Greyton, right?” He runs a hand through his hair somewhat uncomfortably.

Riley Markham stomps down his foot with a soft sigh, once he has picked all the grass from it, before finally looking up with to note David. “David, oi!” He calls back, waving with a weary sort of grin, He’d just taken up his serving of every-flavor beans, when Clavicle’s voice and Saphia’s wave reach him. Cringing without really meaning to, he sets down the candies and considers, briefly, the value of fleeing like a coward. It did seem to have a fairly decent success rate at getting him out of this rather embarrassing situation, though it would only likely cause more embarrassment to deal with later. No, he decided. Time to take one’s lumps like a man. Pushing himself up, he slowly makes his way through the crowd to Clavy and Saphia, waving with one lace-ruffled hand. “Oi, ‘allo, mates.”

“Evan? Evan?” Olivia‘s voice rises in volume as she moves nearer to the games. She stops just several feet away from where the Dunk-the-Goblin game is, and looks about, her face filled with consternation. How could she have lost Evan? Though, she had to admit, the whole school being there made things a bit crowded. “Evan!” She clasps her hands together, scouring the group of people around her for the familiar face, feeling just ever so slightly nervous for reasons she couldn’t exactly place.

Marie-Anna Greyton gives Eliza a pleasant smile. “Hello, Eliza,” is greeted by the Gryffindor girl before she’s lead into the tent, and gives a nod towards Geoffrey. “Pleased to meet you,” is offered with a bit of a smile. Her attention, is then grabbed by Kelly’s greeting. “See, Kelly, I said you’d look good,” is noted with a nod of her head.

As Riley comes over, Saphia brightens up immediately, and whispers back, “Hello, Riley. You look.. um… ” and then she finally breaks down and whispers, “You look terribly awful and your grandmother is clearly the most evil woman on this earth and may actually be, in disguise, Satan herself. But I never said that.” She goes bright red as she realizes what she whispered, and then covers her mouth while diligently examining the pole.

Felicity Wexler is rather clearly having a blast, her cheeks still dappled crimson her wrist still tingling from Gabriel’s hand having been there moments before. Smiling briefly to whomever it is that her date is speaking, she turns her gaze resolutely back to the bottles and gives it another throw. Missing her third shot at well, though only barely.

Glaring acidly at Katherine, Suki bites her lip as she and Tallis stop in front of her. “Sorry about your dress, Kitty, Kitty,” Suki says with a cluck of her tongue. “Were they out of your size at the robe shop, forcing you to make your purchase at a store for dressing oversized Puffskeins?” Shaking her head sadly, Suki places a hand on her hip. “You should have told us you needed help, darling. Such a crisis could have been easily averted. All you need is a stitch-ripper to let dresses out.” Suki does not smirk after her sarcastic jeering, but maintains a pained expression.

Lenore Pantall shrugs her shoulders vaguely, as if to say that it’s not her job to determine the motives of a Dark Wizard, and slips under the table just to hide a little bit more. Dark Wizards, Jack the Ripper and her older sister surely won’t be able to find her if she’s hidden under the table! Reaching out to tug at the bottom of Aisling’s robes, the girl hisses an addition to her words, “Kelly says that Jack the Ripper could make another appearance any day. And! A girl from here was kidnapped by Jack the Ripper not long ago.”

“Not in this lifetime!” Nate states with the same lopsided grin on his face. “There’s no way you could beat me, Goden!” A chuckle escapes the boy’s mouth. And then he finally greets Felicity, “Ah, if it isn’t the… renowned Briony Wexler.” He gives the girl a low bow in greeting, “Humble Nate Hunter at your service! I’ve heard some interesting things about you! Gabe talks about you all the time…” He winks at his friend.

“Oh, they’re adorable, Kitty!” Alexandra squeals, even as she reaches to accept some brownies from her friend. “Let’s go dunk a goblin! Let’s!” Tugging on Louis’s arm, she points excitedly at the tank whilst bouncing on her bare toes. “Maybe you and David can see who can win their date a bigger prize!” she suggests wickedly, grinning.

“Hey… let’s throw some Suki or Tallis instead of a goblin. I’m sure that would be worth more points.” says David with a serious voice, as if he were actually serious. “What do you say, eh? Between us two, and you Riley, we could do it nicely…” he muses, smirking at the two Slytherin girls who were behind Katherine.

“She probably is afraid of you,” Rafe offers with a grin. “I hope she’s afraid of me. I wouldn’t want a Housemate not to be…” He eyes his date and then the Gryffindor prefect who Kelly greets, “Hello, Miss Greyton. Doesn’t Kelly’s hair look…curly?”

Clavicle Gravely grins as Riley comes in. “Porthos..” he states. “We’d not be complete without you.” He grins as he blinks and hmmms. “Are we allowed to tease you about the robes?”

Louis Harper bites his lower lip but follows after Alex as he is tugged by the arm. “All right then, One dripping Goblin coming up….” He says feigning confidence. Louis looks at the two older Slytherin girls Suki and Tallis as they speak to Kitty. He’s not exactly able to hear them as he follows after Alex but he’s sure whatever they are saying happens to be mean spirited a unwarranted.

Jaw dropping as Nate mistakes Felicity for Briony, Gabriel shakes his head madly, punching his friend lightly on the shoulder. “This isn’t Briony, you dolt! She’s over there,” he says, pointing exactly over at where Briony, indeed, is. (He’s obviously been keeping some kind of tabs on her). “This is Felicity Wexler.” Taking a hand to Felicity’s back, Gabriel pushes her forward to Nate slightly, shrugging at her recent, third miss. “This is Nate Hunter. Nate my mate,” Gabriel says, sounding rehearsed. He’s used this rhyme before.

As her shrill laugh, capable of breaking glass, floats up over the crowd, Clementine suddenly becomes rather easy to find. She doesn’t even know if the thing her date just said is actually funny, but apparently the faade is pulled of well enough and he gives her some money to play her game while he goes off to get them both something to drink. An idea which was hers, of course, not his. Tossing her straight hair, she scans the area for Kelly and Rafe with a fixed smile on her face but doesn’t see them. Whether or not she’s afraid of hasn’t been made clear yet, but there is a reason she wasn’t made a Gryffindor. Turning as people come up to where she has been left, she smiles wider, “Oh hi Alex! … Louis.” Even Louis gets a nice greeting. He is, after all, a lesser of the evils she could be exposed to.

Riley Markham can’t help but grin at Saphia’s words, a slow, wry chuckle escaping him in a conspiritorial sort of way. “Said what?” He responds, playfully, to the bespecticalled girl, before glancing to Clavicle with a small smirk. Though it’s a fair shot more friendly than he’s offered Clavicle recently. “I suppose so, mate. I didn’t pick’m, I just have to wear ‘im. Porthos, eh? And who’s Athos, Aramis, and D’artagnan?”

Crouching down to Lenore-under-the-table-height, Aisling looks at the other girl carefully. “No one was kidnapped by Jack the Ripper, certainly not from Hogwarts! That girl was taken by someone else.” Pausing for a moment, she glances venomously towards Kelly. “And it’s almost forty years since the attacks! Jack is probably dead. And if not, well, he’s stopped for good. Why else would he have a break of forty years? And change to the magical world?” Finishing off in a murmur, she mutters, “Perhaps I should tell Kelly where she’s wrong, here…”

Moving closer to the dunking game seems to do the trick; after peering over heads the whole winding way through the crowd, Evan nearly walks into her. “Excuse me, excuse me.. excu..oh! Olivia!” He gives a quiet, nervous laugh. “Barely even started and you’re already running from me.” Fishing a handful of coins from his pocket to pay, he sorts through them quickly, and shoves a couple at the person running the game, hardly even looking. “I’m sorry.. there, did you want to?” “And look, here comes Louis.”

“Pumpkin juice it is,” Karina laughs, making a small curtsy to Charles. She navigates her way through the growing crowd, waving to many a Hufflepuff on her way, before reaching the beverage table. After a few minutes she returns to Charles’s side with two glasses of cold, fresh pumpkin juice. “A toast?” she says to Charles.

Delayed even further by the Head Boy’s greeting, Geoffrey pauses, offering a perfectly polite, “Good to see you again, Martin,” and an almost courtly bow to Marie-Anna. “Yes, I do. A pleasure…” Torn between his duties as Eliza‘s escort and the duties of his manners to Martin and Marie-Anna, Geoffrey’s confident demeanor wavers a bit, and he glances uncertainly over his shoulder to where his date is rapidly disappearing into the tent. Eliza, already several yards away, glances casually over her shoulder, as if checking to see if she had dropped something. A faint cloud passes across the Head Girl’s expression when she spots Geoffrey, but Eliza just gives him a quick nod, beckoning him towards her.

This rather bizarre compliment is not lost on Kelly, who blushes faintly, though she remains rather distracted by trying to locate and glare Clementine in the crowd. “She probably is,” she confirms, folding her arms across her chest. “Afraid of us, I mean. She’s always running off when we’re nearby.” Once again, the reasons for this seem to entirely escape her. “Oh!” She gets drawn back to the matter at hand with a small smile. “Thank you, Miss Greyton.” She offers, bobbing her head slightly.

As Nellie keeps on turning her head into every direction to absorb and repeat every bit of fragmental conversations Andy needs a timeout. “Ahm… I’ll just walk over and fetch us some drinks, if you like.” As Nellie stated, that this was a great idea and told him that she would like to have a glass of punch. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Though this was least realistic. Andy shuffles across the marquee, but then realizes that he was just passing the games section, which was the most crowded place. He lifts his gaze, sees Briony standing at booth and walks over to her. “Hello Briony.” he greets, just noticing that Felicity, Gabriel and another Gryffindor were having a conversation a few yards away.

Take his glass firmly in his gloved hands Charles holds it up in front of himself. “To youth and to love!” He says with a laugh offering his glass up to clink Karina’s glass.

Tallis Carter continues to banter Suki has begun, “Indeed. My ladies’ maids could have assisted you. I would have just owled it to them–they’re quite helpful. Afterall I wouldn’t trust a needle in your pudgy little fingers…” She shrugs and then tilts her head at David, “Fascinating. Small boy with what he believes to be a smart mouth. I’ve always found that to be the most intriguing sort…I’m sure Marshall and…” she forgets the name of Suki’s date “…our dates would appreciate that.”

Lenore Pantall looks back at Aisling with narrowed eyes, shaking her head firmly. “No, no, Aisling.” She murmurs, peering out from under the table at the girl. “She was kidnapped by Jack the Ripper, there’s proof! And she was muggleborn, I think, and Jack the Ripper was probably a muggleborn wizard who turned evil. Er. Kelly thinks so.” And if Kelly has an opinion about serial killers, chances are that it’s true, in the poor girl’s mind.

At the sound of Suki and Tallis’s all-too-familiar voices, Katherine Nichols‘s bright smile instantly fades, and her round face begins to pucker into a hurt frown. “You. Go away,” she says flatly, turning to face the older girls straight on. “Or – or we will throw you into the water!” Inspiration strikes halfway through her weak retort. Spurred on by David’s suggestion, and strengthened by the presence of her other friends around her, Katherine pulls herself up to her full (but not very impressive) height, and says again, “Go away!”

An eyebrow is quirked at Louis’ father and Martin just narrows his eyes. The professor brought a date? Could professors date? He wrinkles his nose and smoothes his robes and then redirects his attention back to Geoffrey. “I think… I think Eliza wants you. Don’t feel obligated to chat with us. Your duties are to your escort, after all.” Or was Geoffrey the escort? Slightly confused, Martin shrugs his shoulders. He offers Marie a small smile.

Felicity Wexler squeaks, slightly. A slightly cross look touching her features at one; being mistaken for Briony, when they are very clearly different. The difference in Felicity‘s mind a few dozen pounds, at least. And two; how quickly it was that Gabriel seemed to pick out Briony’s location out of the crowd, as if he’d been watching her. She wasn’t entirely sure why that bothered her so much, but she was sure that the flush on her cheeks now wasn’t simply from the embarrassment of him touching her hand a few moments before. Still, she isn’t one to be out done. “Nate,” she greets, sweetly, nodding and giving something of a half-curtsey that seems appropriate for the formal nature of her attire. “Pleased to meet you. You can call me Lissy. And I’m Gabriel’s mate as well, at least for today.” She beams, happily, saying it in a rather full voice. Her smile is such, though, that her nose does wrinkle in the most adorable way, helping her same some face.

“Oh, there you are,” she comments and smiles at Evan as he approaches. She giggles and steps up to the booth, looking at the rather sour-looking goblin in the booth. “Hmn, I wonder how they got the goblins to agree to this,” she voices, echoing Evan’s earlier comments which she had been unable to hear, due to their separation. “They don’t look to be very happy about it. Who’s watching the vaults, do you think? If the goblins are all here, I mean.” Olivia takes the ball that is offered to her, lobbing it at the trigger and missing at a rather sickening distance.

Saphia Bona remains tight lipped, and suddenly has a brainwave. “Alright. We can’t move the bar, right? It’s stuck to whatever it touches firmly, right? But we can maybe change what that is that it’s stuck to!” Gleefully, she remarks, “I need permission from one of the teachers… or the headmistress! I can do this!”

Clavicle Gravely laughs at Saphia, “Well there’s a bunch of teachers over there making sure none of us get too close.” he grins and nods to Riley “Right … I’m the poetic one…who’s angry.”

Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles a little before nodding towards Geoffrey. “Indeed, they are, I’ll not keep you any longer from Eliza,” is offered with a pleasant enough smile, before she offers this same smile towards Martin. So…”

“To youth and to love,” Karina Sedgewick says with a smile and blush. She takes a sip of the juice, her eyes twinkling. “I do love you, Charles,” she says with a light laugh. Her blush deepens as she suddenly realizes what she just said, but she doesn’t take it back. Instead, she leans forward and kisses Charles lightly on the cheek.

The Gryffindor returns the punch to Gabriel and laughs, “Well, I just assumed–and I didn’t know what Briony looked like…” his cheeks flush slightly and then the boy offers the pair a shrug. “That’s me, Nate Hunter. Well, actually it’s technically Leopold Nathanial Hunter, but Nate is just better. And please forgive me, Miss Wexler. Just a case of mistaken identity,” Nate smiles at the girl. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lissy. I’m sure you know how beautiful you look–even old Gabe here couldn’t have made that oversight.” He offers her a warm smile.

“Hello Saphia.” Kassandra Verkooyen greets, with a slight bow. “Clavicle.” she adds. “May I introduce my date.” she looks up to Richard. “Richard Terry, a second-year housemate of ours. What a wonderful evening, isn’t it? Have you already tasted the food? It just looks marvelous. A what a splendid dress, Saphia.” she steps back to examine Saphia’s dress. “Madame Malkins, isn’t it?”

Charlie Linwood slinks out onto the lawn, very carefully not in dress robes. He has, however, procured for himself a rather nicely tailored dress-up suit, having quailed at the dress robes(his reaction something along the lines of ‘That’s even more of a ruddy dress than the regular robes!’ and ‘They cannot make me dress like a girl.’) Still, his face is washed, his hair is nicely combed, and everything seems to be in place as though he were attending a muggle social. Without his shoes on. Yes, Charlie‘s feet are properly bare, whether anyone else took the title seriously or not. He is late, and he is, of course, alone.

“I’m sure they aren’t all here; likely they work in shifts, and we’ve got the off-duty shift. It would be interesting to know what we offered them for the favor though..” Evan stands back, watching as Olivia makes her first toss, and where it goes. “Here, try again.. just think about… pushing it forward.” He laughs once, more freely this time. “And about that goblin under water.”

Charles Harper takes a sip of his glass as well toasting to youth an love and even a blush comes over the face of the seasoned Auror. “I love you Karina. I have for some time now.” Charles closes his eyes when Karina kisses him and then brings her into a hug. Ah romance!

Saphia Bona smiles to Kassandra as she walks up to them, looking positively unladylike as she giggles with excitement in her newfound solution to the unsticking charm game. “Oh, hello Kassandra! Hello Richard,” she smiles as well, and nods, “It’s a Malkin’s robe, yes, but I still think it’s very nice!” Suddenly, she spots… “Professor! Professor Sedgewick!” She waves at the potions professor, trying to attract her attention in the chaos.

With a laugh, Gabriel adds, “Oh, yeah,” with a nod. “Felicity asked me here… and… yes, you do look very, very nice,” he says emphatically, looking her full in the face. Gabriel probably should have thought to comment earlier (girls liked that, didn’t they?), but, well, hindsight is 20/20. “And your dress is… pretty.” Gabriel says the word as if it doesn’t often cross his lips, but shrugs afterwards, his task complete in his mind. “If you want to bug him, which you will, just call him Leopold,” he says, nudging the other boy. “He hates it more than he makes it seem!”

Aisling O‘Cormac joins Lenore under the table, watching the rest of the room carefully. “I think that Kelly thinks and talks much too much about serial killers..” Looking out at everyone’s feet, Aisling continues, “Um, do you feel like maybe playing one of the games? The ring toss, maybe, or the goblin dunking? Or… are you hungry?” As much as she appreciates and loves her friend, Aisling would rather be upright and able to talk with others than sitting under a table. But if Lenore stays, she will too.

Riley Markham chuckles, nodding to Clavicle and passing a glance to Saphia with obvious amusement, despite the weary sort of annoyance that clings to his pale features. His gaze shifts toward Kassandra as she approaches, arching a brow, though saying nothing. Nodding to her, and giving Richard a small wave and greeting, “Terry,” Riley looks decidedly out-of-place. Rather beginning to feel like a fifth wheel.

Suddenly distracted from the present conversation – ah, what a fickle girl she is – Kelly spies Charlie and all but skips to his side with a cheerful grin. “Charlie! I was wondering if you were going to be able to make it.” Never mind that she just ran off on Rafe to go chat with Charlie, which probably doesn’t look good to anyone else. “Well, not that there was anything else for you to do tonight, but it’s good that you came – don’t you have a date?” Not that this would be entirely obvious at all by the fact that he’s entirely alone. “Oh well. I can pretend to be your date for a little while if you want?” This is offered cheerfully, apparently not registering that this is Not A Good Thing, as she already has one. Who she just ran off on. Oh dear.

“We’ll stay where we want to, Kitty,” Suki hisses, but growing quickly bored of the situation. “Where is my punch?” she asks shrilly, as not a moment too soon, the bumbling Shawn shambles up to Suki with a glass of pink liquid. “Punch,” he grunts as Suki snatches the glass away. “Finally,” she snaps, a hand still on her hip.

Looking back at Suki, then Tallis, David answers with a very calm voice, the giddiness of the event actually making him braver and more inspired than he would have been on an average day. “So… showing off your dates, are you? How much did you have to pay them to convince to come with you?” he says with a small smirk? “No boy would go with a pair of geese like you otherwise, and then, only people without morality would do that…”

“Pushing it fooorward, alright…” She makes the motions of tossing the ball again before she actually does so, this time, making it much closer, but still not hitting the target. “Hmm, I’m sure I can do this. Can I have the other ball?” She holds her hand out, as if trying to judge the aim she would need. Perhaps she has seen someone else do this very aiming technique, and while it looks quite professional, one has to doubt whether Olivia actually knows that this is helping or not. “I’m sure the third one will do it.” She smiles widely at Evan, actually feeling quite hopeful for her last shot.

It takes a moment for Karina Sedgewick to pull herself away from the universe that is her and Charles, but when she does, she notices Saphia and gives her an enthusiastic wave. “Miss Bona!” she greets the Ravenclaw. “Mr. Gravely, Mr. Markham! I’m glad to see you all enjoying yourself!” she shouts across the crowd. Karina rarely shouts. “I would have to congratulate the headmistress on this excellent event,” she says to Charles. “I think we can all use the opportunity to relax and enjoy ourselves.”

“I say, I thought you didn’t like pink, Suki,” Katherine retorts, in a sudden flash of bravery, and with a smug, pointed glance at the punch. “And you wouldn’t dare try anything, not with all the professors here. And the Headmistress.” Katherine tosses her head, setting her ringlets bouncing around her shoulders. David‘s addition to the debate makes her gasp, though, and she turns to stare at the Ravenclaw boy with scandalized awe.

“Probably true…” Lenore offers quietly, her voice barely audible in tone again, peering out from under the table, her moves tentative and hesitant to say the least. “Can you see her? Er… I think I’ll stay under here for a while.” If Kelly has vanished from sight, that cannot be a good thing, meaning that the small Hufflepuff has even more reason to be hiding under the table.

Felicity Wexler seems mollified by the belated praise, choosing not to notice how stuttered it comes. She was, if nothing else, always willing to bask in the attention of others. Regardless if it came naturally or not. Smiling happily, her blushing cheers resume a pleasant sort of pink color and she glances to Nate with playful eyes. “Leopold? Awh, but that’s such a handsome name,” she teases, giggling. “Why, if you were my date, then I could call you “Leo-pooh”. Or perhaps “Leo-doll”. Wouldn’t that be splendid?” Her eyes shimmer, mischievously.

Clavicle Gravely Grins to Kassandra and Richard. To whom he offers a hand. Of course on his hands is a bouncing tattoo of a skeletal dog. “Nice to meet you!” He says with a genuine smile

Clavicle Gravely nods politely to Karina Sedgewick. “And to you Ma’am.”

Charles Harper smiles as Karina brings him back to reality with mentioning Saphia’s last name. He looks down at the young Ravenclaw with a broad smile. “Ah Miss Bona. You are looking a great deal better than the last time we met. I do hope things have gotten better yes?” Charles takes Karina’s hand in his own while he speaks forgetting that Saphia probably doesn’t even remember him.

Marie-Anna Greyton carries on politely conversing with those around her, as the moment may call for.

Arriving on her own, Tahiri Sol sweeps in to the social with all her usual silent grace. Offering a nod to each of the goblins and trolls manning the door, she moves toward the round tables with a only a small glance giving toward the room.

Having attracted the attention of the professor, Saphia quickly darts over and says, “Professor Sedgewick, I need permission to cast a charm that would make a handkerchief intangible. Or I need a professor to cast it. I can win one of the contests this way! Please?” She actually clasps her hands together in a classic begging pose. As Charles spots her and comments, she smiles, “I’m very well now, thank you Mr…. Mr. Auror, sir.” She never did actually learn his name.

Charlie Linwood looks at Kelly and raises his eyebrows, though does not make any audible comment on her appearance. Doesn’t have to, now does he? “Erm… well, what about, you know?” He looks around now, trying not to notice anyone who stares, “DeWitt. You made such a fuss of asking him, and… well..” Charlie nervously rubs the back of his neck, “Alright. But not as a date, just to keep you company if he’s busy or something.” He takes a few steps out, cheeks a bit rosy, “I feel ridiculous without shoes on.” His eyes flicker around, and linger on a few of the couples. “I should’ve just stayed in, but I bought the ruddy suit so my father would get quite cross if I didn’t use it….”

“Er. If you will excuse me…?” Geoffrey gives Marie another quick, courtly bow before edging off into the crowd towards Eliza Marlowe. The Head Girl, for her part, seems entirely unconcerned with her lack of an escort for the moment – she’s surveying the scene, keeping a sharp watchful eye on the crowd. Uh-oh – trouble over by the goblin dunk? Eliza‘s expression darkens as she sees Suki and Tallis swooping in towards the younger students, but she does nothing more than note the situation with a quick nod of her head, and turns back towards Geoffrey as he pushes his way towards her. “Ready to dance, if a good song comes up?” the Head Girl asks, jerking her head towards the band with a grin.

Evan Geroff grins back at Olivia, placing the third ball, which he has been holding, in her hand. “Third time always does it.” He neglects to offer more advice; being a chaser, he knows how to throw balls, but this doesn’t quite seem the place for a quidditch lesson after all.

“Suki is pretty,” is Shawn’s stunningly clever retort to David’s question. Suki, however, is not amused, hitting the boy over the head and whispering, ‘clever…’ into Shawn’s ear before laughing loudly. “The reason this social called for girls asking boys here was so that there’d be no emergencies– boys trampling each other– in order to be the first to ask Tallis and myself. Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish, Mildred,” Suki warns as she looks over to Katherine. “I’m sorry, just what are you implying?” the girl asks, tilting her head.

Alexandra Leong comes to her friend’s defense, even as the rest of their group rally around Kitty. “Some people just can’t stand people with real friends, Kitty,” she says, “Come on, let’s go play.” Alexandra, taking the high road? Impossible. Something’s up.

Sighing a bit as Albert presents a prize to her, she smiles up at him thankfully. “How SWEET!” she tells him, saying it rather more loudly than is absolutely necessary. “Would you look at that, Albert won a prize for me!” She giggles and hugs the boy rather over-enthusiastically. She glances over and sees that Felicity seems to be oblivious of her antics, though Gabriel almost appears to be watching. Well, honestly, why would he be watching? Briony huffs a bit and looks at the prize. “Shall we head over and get some seats?” she suggests and drags Albert off towards where the tables. “I’d like to put this down so it doesn’t get ruined.” She giggles a bit and heads in that direction quickly.

Riley Markham lifts his gaze toward Karina with slightly wide eyes, somewhat surprised she’d speak to him after his Pepper-Up Potion made her openly weep a few days before. “Hallo, Professor,” he replies, kindly, though in somewhat sheepish tone. Charles, however, fully catches his attention as the man greets Saphia. His eyes narrowing almost instantly, though can’t really be certain why.

Completely forgetting about Nellie and still standing next to Briony and Albert, it was just the scenario Andy had expected. Felicity having a good time with her date, blushing and chuckling whatever compliment or joke he would be making. At least it seemed so, from the distance. In a few days he would even have to play Quidditch in the same team with him. Probably passing him the quaffles which he would easily convert into points. All the glory pocketed by Gabriel.

Louis Harper stands behind Alexandra and Katherine glaring hard at the older Slytherin girls and there dates. “I don’t think Astra …. or Martin would like to hear about you both being…. anti-social at a social.” He tries his best to sound menacing but being only in his third year and slim as a toothpick that could be rather silly looking.

Even though she had been speaking to him only moments before, Kelly‘s expression is suddenly one of surprise, as if she had momentarily forgotten that she already had a date. Then, she blushes quite furiously and offers, quietly and confidentially, “I can’t get used to the idea that I have, you know, a sweetheart now. It’s just so random!” Then, she looks up, scoping the crowd for the elusive Rafe, and her voice raises again to a much more normal level. “I think I misplaced him, though. So I can keep you company until I find him again.”

Karina Sedgewick seems intrigued. “Did you check with the operators of the game that this is within their rules?” she asks Saphia, with a bit more seriousness than she really intended. “And, if I agree to cast it, do I get a part of the prize?” She seems bent on seriously negotiations, although her eyes are twinkling with mirth. “What do you think, Charles? What would be fair?”

A giggle bursts out of Katherine Nichols, full of actual amusement at the prospect of anyone liking Suki and Tallis. “I’m not implying anything!” she protests with perfect innocence, but giggles continue to bubble out of her, bright and giddy with exhilaration at being able to stand up to the older girls, and having her friends clustered behind her. “Yes, let’s try, Alex.” One last flash of mischief rises up in Katherine‘s eyes as she adds, “It’s much more fun to dunk goblins than to talk to them.”

“I think you have too many delusions of grandeur, Korosu. You think every boy wants to go out with you… but you see, I’m a boy, and I actually get to hear what boys say. Which is far from being what you think it is. Now go away, and let us throw our Goblin.” says David. “Unless you want us to do you instead.”

Clavicle Gravely has wandered up towards things with Saphia and nods to Mr. Harper. “Good day to you.” the Gravely boy states. Clavicle is a Gravely, of the Gravely Shadow Emporium and Autumnal Carnival. A carnival that travels in both worlds. He offers the man a hand, and Clavicle it seems, has some of the markings of his father, Gravely the Second, as he already has animated tattoos here and there. “You were one of the ones that helped rescue Miss Bona? As her friend, I owe you a debt of gratitude.” He offers a hand to the man, the boy seems so formal, to be only 12. “If you are ever about the school sometime, I would consider it an honor to bend your ear with questions on your trade, I could write a good paper for Professor Rathe I suspect.”

Extremely amused by the whole notion of ‘Leo-pooh’, Gabriel laughs as he nods animatedly to Felicity. “Good one!” he declares, grinning. Glancing over slightly as he hears the familiar voice exclaim, ‘Sweet!’, Gabe quickly turns back to the other two. “That’s enough ring-toss,” he exclaims, taking Felicity’s hand. “Want me to get you some punch?” he asks. Oh, he was good at this date thing.

Charles Harper strokes his chin thoughtfully at the question “My name is Charles Harper, and it is a pleasure to rightfully make your acquaintance Miss Bona.” Charles looks at Riley with almost the same look he is given. “As for winning this game…. as long as it’s operators are not against it I don’t see why not…. es It sounds fair Karina.” He chuckles again.

Aisling O‘Cormac looks around and then back to Lenore. “I can’t see her…” she comments. “I saw her move that way,” she gestures obliquely, “but after that, I don’t know where she went.” Espying a gap in the crowd beside their table, Aisling continues, “I think it would be safe enough to go over and play ring toss? Just one round, promise, and if we see her, we can come back here?” Her friend’s shyness is chafing, but she won’t leave her.

Clementine Duncan slips away in her date’s absence after failing to dunk the goblin. Wandering away from where he probably would come to find her, walks around with no real aim other then.. not being found. It might be cruel, but she doesn’t see it that way just yet. She glides gracefully past Kelly and Charlie, stopping not far from them as she peers around for her date… just in case he’s anywhere that he could possibly see her. He tall, too, after all.

Saphia Bona ‘s face falls immediately as she realizes that the answer to Karina’s first question is ‘No’. “Oh. Well, it would have worked…” She sighs unhappily, realizing that no, it really probably isn’t within the rules to pass an intangible handkerchief between the bar and the pole and lift it off with it. “I… I guess I’ll go take a look at it and see if I can find another solution…” Which indeed, she probably will unless someone manages to derail her fixation.

Charlie Linwood shrugs, then, though he seems somehow distracted, and keeps smoothing down the front of his coat. “Well, if you think he won’t mind too much, Kate.” Another wide look about. Somehow there seemed to be so many more people out here than ever at the Great Hall. Perhaps it’s the multitude of colors differentiating everyone. “What’s there to do?” Clementine gets a vague glance-over, but unlike a lot of the boys here tonight, he’s taking very little notice of the prettiness of the girls. Gee.

Lenore Pantall crawls out from under the table, though her expression is still one that indicates it would not be a fun thing at all. “Just one.” She promises, clinging to the other girl’s arm in a near deathgrip. “And if we see Kelly, I’m going straight back under that table.”

“Do me?” Suki repeats, eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.” Huffing, Suki turns to shove Shawn away from the little cretins. “Come, Shawn, it’s time for you to win prizes for me.” Shawn seems very happy about this, as he chuckles and runs solidly to the booth, looking eager to be put back into his comfort zone: sports. Suki only sighs, glaring nastily at David and Katherine in turn.

“But, we haven’t won any–” Felicity starts to say, frowning a little. A sure sign that despite her nice masks and the smoke and mirrors of her pleasant facade, she’d been watching Briony and Albert all the same. She does, however, catch herself. Bringing a warm smile to her lips, she nods demurely. “That sounds wonderful. I’d love some punch.” The woman running the ring toss, however, must overhear, as she motions for Gabriel to lean close and so that she can hand him one of the lowest tier prizes. A terribly cute (in a hideously ugly sort of way) plush kappa.

“Alright,” Olivia answers and breathes in deeply, chucking the ball at the target and closing her eyes. Momentarily, though, she hears a large SPLASH! “Oh! OH!” She claps excitedly and giggles, taking her prize happily. “I did it! I dunked the goblin!” She pauses and glances at him. “Oh, my, doesn’t he look mad. Let’s… perhaps we should head back to the table so I can put this down.” She pauses. “Do you want it?” She brandishes it in his direction with a big smile. “I won it.” Her face is filled with joy and surprise.

Kelly Pantall pauses for a moment, thinking this over. Would Rafe mind that she walked off mid-conversation, misplaced him, and attached herself to another boy? Well, if she manages to register that most people probably would mind quite a lot if that happened, it doesn’t show in her actions and words. “Well, there’s a whole lot of games and so forth. Dunking goblins and ring tosses and so forth. Or dancing. Do you dance, Charlie? I don’t think Rafe does, so I didn’t want to tell him that I really do like it.” See how considerate she is? Pausing for a moment in her conversation, she twirls the skirt of her robes back and forth. Swoosh. Swoosh.

Letting out another peal of laughter in triumph, Katherine turns her back on Suki and Shawn with elaborate care. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe we made them go away!” she gasps under her breath to the others, her face pinkening with leftover agitation and giddy glee. She reaches into her purse – just as pink and ruffled as her dress – to pull out several Knuts. “Let’s start playing! Oh, good show, Olivia!” she cries, enthusiastically applauding her housemate’s success at the game, and patiently waiting her own turn.

David chuckles Suki walks away, understanding that she was fleeing away. “I pity his date. Either so smitten with her that he can’t think straight, in which case I hope for him he’ll recover quickly, or he’s genuinely stupid. Oh well. Who wants to throw his first goblin?” he asks cheerfully.

Having started to head for the punch, Gabriel‘s attention is caught by the woman, and he releases Felicity’s hand momentarily to accept the covert prize. Returning to Felicity and Nate, Gabriel holds up the plush kappa for them to see. “Look at this, she gave me one!” Wait for it… wait for it… comprehension! “Ohh,” Gabriel says quietly as he understands. “Here Felicity, I want you to have it,” he says, passing the plush kappa to her with one hand and offering his other arm to her simultaneously. “Now punch,” he says.

Clavicle Gravely backs away a bit from Charles Harper and shrugs a touch. Uncertain, he decides not to push for attention and looks back to his friends. “The best thing to do…is ask them what the rules actually are, then find the loophole.”

Evan Geroff laughs happily, and even makes a move to hug Olivia – but wait, this isn’t one of his sisters, this is his date.. would it even be proper? – and so, still grinning despite his confusion, he changes his motion easily to simply reach for her arm again, to escort her back to the table. “Wonderful job! Do I.. oh, but I think we have it backwards, I was supposed to win you something. We probably ought to get out of that goblin’s sight range for a while though..”

Having just crawled out from under the table, Aisling stares around a little, taking in the huge amount of people present. Heading slowly towards the ring toss through the masses of people, she somewhat hauls the other girl along, stuck as she is onto her arm. Arriving at the ring toss, Aisling waves quickly at Olivia, who she met prior to the Sorting, and other people she’s met, over at the goblin-dunking stand. At the stall holder’s query, she turns to Lenore. “Do you want to go first?” she queries.

“Oh, let us sit there where we can watch the others trying the games. Maybe you could win a prize for me later?” Kassandra chirps. She and Richard walk over to the chairs and sit down. Sipping on their glasses of punch and watching the ‘Dunk the Goblin’ game. Laughing every time the poor goblin plunges into the water.

Riley Markham sigh, softly, lifting a hand to brush back his hair — despite the fact that for once, it’s actually tightly tied back for a change. “I think I’m going to go get something to eat. Why don’t you both, go, you know, have some fun. Play some games, or something. Have some fun or..” The words seem to stick in his throat, obviously having reach the limit of his fifth-wheel tolerance. “Dance,” he says, finally, with something almost like a small gasp. “Or something. Just, yeah. Excuse me, eh?” Still, he smiles, before backing up a step and turning toward the food tables. His scarred foot continually picking up blades of grass with it as he walks.

“Well… I don’t, really,” Charlie is Uncomfortable, with the capital ‘U’ and all, all of a sudden, and so quickly rushes, “I mean, once or twice, I’ve had to with my cousin–she’s a muggle, but was learning,” he’s only upper middle class, this one. Charlie fidgets again and seems to notice Kelly’s dress robes. “Green.” Indistinct muttering, and he sort of dawdles, though his eyes move toward the games rather than the dancers.

Saphia Bona looks to Riley unhappily as he begins to walk away, but knows better than to chase after him now. Instead, she merely mouths the words, ‘Goodbye’… as he heads off, but, his back turned, he doesn’t see it. Saphia looks to Clavicle instead and asks, “So, um, what do you want to do?”

Apparently Gabriel was having all the group’s attention at the moment. That could be Andy Carver‘s chance. He sidles through the crowd, passes a few couples and finally tries to scurry out of sight behind Gabriel’s back and remain unrecognized.

Lenore Pantall shrugs vaguely at Aisling, though she does take the ring and toss it inexpertly at the bottles. She repeats this twice, before turning back to Aisling with an ‘I give up!’ sort of expression. “I have bad aim.” She observes quietly, returning to clinging tightly to Aisling’s arm.

Clavicle Gravely hmms. “Hey Riley.. er. Save me a sandwich. Yeah? We have to talk quidditch later.” he shrugs to Saphia and looks at the mostly unused dance area. “Well then. shall we do some of that grass bending?”

Felicity Wexler turns a shade of scarlet to match her dress as she’s offered by the adorably-ugly doll and the Gabriel’s arm, accepting both in turn. Pulling her lower lip between her teeth and chewing on it nervously for a moment, she lowers her gaze in a slightly embarrassed way, before glancing toward Briony out the corner of her eye. Cradling the plush turtle to her, she covertly (do her best to keep Gabriel from noticing), pokes her tongue out at Briony in a ha-ha sort of way. A heartbeat out and back in, but enough to convey a message. She’d gotten a prize, too.

A skinny boy can be seen quickly walking down from the castle, still fumbling with his dress tie, he mutters a few things to himself, “Blimey, I can’t be on time for anything!” Chris finally reaches the large group of people, his tie finally submitting to his will, he seems to look for someone. “I hope she didn’t leave, serves me right for bein’ so late.”

Kelly Pantall is hardly upper-class herself, as much as her mother tries to persuade the world otherwise, and she grabs firmly for his arm to try and pull him back towards the dancers. See, Charlie she has no qualms about pushing around, and hence the biggest difference between him and Rafe. Except for all the other petty differences. “Just one dance, please? I promise you, if Rafe gets annoyed, I’ll tell him I persuaded you to do it so you don’t have to have a big man-fight in my honour.”

Saphia Bona smiles and only blushes a little as she and Clavicle tread away to the dance ‘floor’. At the dancefloor are a set of dancing shoes, together with a sign reading ‘Please wear shoes while on the dance floor. Regards, Professor Dwight.” Saphia looks at them and looks to Clavicle for direction.

“Aye,” Riley calls, without looking back. Lifting a hand to wave back toward Clavicle and Saphia to demonstrate he’d heard Clavicle’s request. Heading to the tables and stopping in front of the desert line, he snatches up a chocolate biscuit and chomps in to it savagely.

A flash of emerald reveals a Ravenclaw first year who had been hanging around the outskirts of the social, looking for her date. As Chris is spotted, Kara walks up toward him, a grin on her face. “Hi Chris! I thought I had missed you in the commons, so I came out here. And now here you are!”

Clavicle Gravely looks at the shoes with suspicion but shrugs as he tugs a pair on. “Shoes on the dance floor. I hope they don’t try to dance on their own.”

Accepting the three rings from the stall holder, Aisling O‘Cormac shakes Lenore off her arm gently, getting ready to toss her rings. As the first one knocks into a bottle of butterbeer, she pouts a little. Getting ready to throw her second ring, she turns to Lenore. “See?” she says. “It’s not so bad. And there’s no sign of Kelly, either.”

Charlie Linwood doesn’t really put up a protest, letting himself be pulled over to the dancing. A distracted, “Alright, that seems fair,” is all he says. Shaking his head, though, the boy focuses, and offers up a more relaxed smile, “I owe you for Astronomy, anyway, right?” He seems to have decided turning down Kelly’s offer has more cons than accepting it, as he straightens up a bit.

“Ooh, they are heading for the dancefloor.” Kassandra almost cheers. “Shall we?” she asks her date with a challenging glance. He shrugs smiling and both of them rise, walk to the dancing section and eye the shoes that are provided. “I thought it was a barefoot.” Richard states. “I had brought my own shoes, if I had known this before.” Kassandra moans.

“Well, I don’t mind if you don’t,” she responds, sounding still cheerful. “Oh, my, it is hot in here? There are so many people around.” Olivia smiles to Evan as they reach their seats, gesturing for Evan to have the plush toy join his sweets. “Maybe we should get some punch, or water or something. I wonder what kind of punch they have. Maybe we should even have some sweets. By rule, mum doesn’t like me to have sweets, but maybe today can be special.” She smiles and grabs at Evan’s hand, as if to lead him over to the long table.

“Exactly!” Kelly crows, clapping her hands as if she just stumbled across the perfect way to persuade him. “You owe me for Astronomy, because I let you use my telescope and I – handed in your essay for you.” Ah, those blank sheets of paper don’t just write themselves. Then, she takes his hands firmly, assuming he actually allows her to do so, slipping on a pair of the special dancing shoes. “Besides, that thing you told me not to mention? Now everyone will know it’s not true.” Because obliquely referring to it like this doesn’t count as bringing it up, of course.

Sitting quietly at one of the round tables, off to the side of the room, Orion Kari has his bare feet propped up in the chair next to him in a bored sort of way. One leg bent to provide a natural easel, the handsome olive-skinned Hufflepuff scratches away at a sketchbook, capturing the social with the point of the quill he holds.

Gabriel Goden wouldn’t have seen Felicity’s gesture to Briony, but he tugs her along just the same towards the punch. Ladling a cup (very) full, he hands it rather carefully to Felicity. “Here you go. It’s pretty full, sorry,” he says, understating the dangerously near to overflowing glass. Gabriel does not make the same mistake with his punch, though, which he downs all in one go. Wiping his sleeve over his face (oh how his mother would disapprove!), Gabriel raises an eyebrow as, while scanning the crowd vaguely looking for Briony, looses his balance slightly and steps backwards a little to catch himself, rather toppling into Andy. “What the-!”

“Shoes? Right then.” With a shrug and a toss of her head, Eliza Marlowe slips on a pair of the dancing shoes; Geoffrey, a little less certain about the whole matter, follow suit. As Eliza‘s foot hits the dance floor, the music changes, swiftly picking up tempo. A grin spreads across the Head Girl’s face, and she reaches out to take Geoffrey’s hand. “All riiiight,” she says, with an appreciative look over at the band. “I love this song.” Even though a few other couples have ventured onto the floor – a pair of fifth-years awkwardly entwined in each other’s arms and swaying; a cluster of girls bouncing around to follow the tempo of whatever music happens to be playing – Eliza and Geoffrey actually look like they know what they’re doing, and the music follows suit. The Head Girl swings around, moving with the same effortless grace that she brings to the Quidditch pitch. Twirling out along the length of Geoffrey’s arm and then reeling back in again, Eliza lets out a laugh as she spins in time with the music. Unlike some girls on the dance floor, though, Eliza doesn’t let her hand linger on her date’s arm for any longer than is necessary, and doesn’t spin in too close. He’s a dance partner, it seems, and nothing more.

Lenore Pantall peers about the area suspiciously, her eyes darting about and shining with youthful paranoia. She grabs at Aisling’s arm even tighter all of a sudden, clinging tightly to her and probably causing her to miss the next throw. “Kelly! Dancefloor.” Admittedly, that is quite a way away, but she had to announce her observance. “And she’s with a boy. A Hufflepuff one, I think.”

Clavicle Gravely follows along with the music as well. His dance style is basic, as he’s far more interested in trying to make Saphia feel comfortable then show off.

“All, good luck,” Karina Sedgewick says to Saphia. She turns her attention back to her date, and as the dance music starts to play a mischievous smile creeps onto her face. “May I have this dance?” she asks Charles, behaving like a perfect gentlewoman.

Marie-Anna Greyton has managed to find herself separated from her so-called date and is now being a wallflower, though she seems entertained enough as she watches the goings on of the dance floor.

“I don’t mind,” Evan agrees, stroking the toy once before setting it, sitting upright, next to his every-flavor beans. He likewise does not object as Olivia grabs his hand. “Of course we should have some – this certainly isn’t normal, and we can’t pass them up after the school went to so much trouble to set all of this out.” “Those tarts look particularly good, do you like strawberry?”

Charlie Linwood turns rather red around the edges of his face as he slips on the odd shoes and lets Kelly, of all things, take his hands. “Right,” murmurs Charlie, expression suddenly sharp. “After all, Kate, you are a girl.” Wonder of wonders, can it be true? Shh. There’s a moment of pause before he, should Kelly be so inclined, begins to lead in some not-too-close-to-my-body-please dance.

Charles Harper chuckles sipping his drink and watching to social progress. “It really is a lovely night Karina dear.” Charles sets down his glass and nods with a gracious “Ah but of course! I was hoping you would ask!”

Saphia Bona watches Eliza, and gets the idea immediately, “Oh, that’s so clever! It’s a tying charm, look at the instruments! They’ve got those silver ribbons on them that show the connec– woah!” Saphia gasps as Clavicle whisks her onto the dance floor. Smiling after her moments shock, Saphia happily, if clumsily, dances with Clavicle. The beat stays steady, but a few of the instruments break away to provide a slower melody under the fast beat, allowing Saphia and Clavicle the leeway to dance a slower pace than Eliza and Geoffrey.

Aisling O‘Cormac is suddenly grabbed by Lenore, distracting her and making her ring fly extremely wide of the mark. Peering at the dancefloor, she squints at the couple. “Heey…” she says, thoughtfully. “That’s not Rafe! I thought she was going with Rafe?” Casually tossing her last ring, she turns properly to Lenore, her ring landing over a butterbeer bottle unseen, and unthought of.

Clementine Duncan seems to be doing the same thing as Marie-Anna… and seems perfectly content doing so. It’s amazing how even in an orange dress, Clem manages to remain undetected.

Kara Raine giggles and shakes her head, the few curls bouncing merrily around her face. “You got lost again? Well, I suppose that by the time we graduate we might figure this place out.” Kara does the blushing now, at the comment. “Why thank you kind sir. You look nice as well, but its kind of strange being with out shoes. So, what would you like to do, there is ever so much here! Games and food, and dancing. I think I checked out everything while I was looking around for you.”

Kelly Pantall apparently respects Charlie’s personal space enough not to dance too closely, even if she does invade it on a regular basis under normal circumstances by randomly hugging him and grabbing at his arms periodically. “Yes, well done, I am a girl.” Her tone is cheerful rather than insulted, and she seems not to take remote offense to anything he happens to say. “But that’s okay. I understand and all. But you dance quite well, really.” She offers generously, spinning around a little and allowing her skirt to bell around her. That’s the best part of her dress robes.

Why has just everything gone wrong today? Andy closes his eyes for a split second and takes a deep breath. Now he would make a fool of himself in front of Felicity and his housemates. He just recognises that he is still holding his shoulder, preventing Gabriel from falling down. “Oh… ahm… sorry.” Andy tries not to look into Felicity’s eyes. “Are you alright?”

Without another word, Karina Sedgewick catches Charles’s hand and makes her way to the dance floor. A pair of dance shoes mysteriously find their way onto her feet, and she finds herself shoed and dancing, a more stately dance than the ones partaken by the youngsters.

“I thought she was going with Rafe, too!” Lenore hisses in response, leaning closer to Aisling and lowering her voice still further and adding, “In fact, she’s been harping on about it for, well, ever. And she told me he asked her to be his sweetheart.” This is said with a slightly triumphant voice, and she continues at a low hiss. “Which means either she was lying or she’s being unfaithful to him already.” The fact that Kelly might be dancing with another boy just as friends totally escapes her.

Clavicle Gravely grins a bit as he continues to dance with her “You are better at this then you give yourself credit.” he laughs a bit. The beat that meets them is perfect for the shoes touching the floor

Charles Harper cannot help but to laugh a bit when the shoes find his feet and he starts danceing allone with Karina. “I must say the music is excellent! Did they hire somone?” Charles is smileing while watching his date’s dance moves.

Aisling O‘Cormac looks shocked. “I’m not sure which of the two is worse!” she whispers vehemently back to Lenore. “I’m of half a mind to go and confront her about this!” she continues, before she is interrupted by the stall holder thrusting a small prize at her. “Oh!” she exclaims. “Look, Lenore, I won a prize! Do you want it?” she offers, friendlyly.

Kassandra Verkooyen and Richard slip into the dancing shoes. She chose some matching blue ones. He was content with a plain black pair, but as they just fitted themselves into his proper shoesize, their color changed to the same creamy tone as his robes. Kassandra was the one who had to lead the dance and after some starting problems, they had a good time dancing to the diversified tunes.

The Ravenclaw boy seems to try and control his nervousness no matter what. Chris nods, grinning as he replies to the statement about no shoes. “Yeah, is a little strange.” He looks around, not sure what he wants to do and seeing it as an oppurtunity to be polite, “Um, what would you prefer?”

Charlie Linwood isn’t so bad for a gawky teenager, but murmurs an indistinct affirmative rather than a proper awknowledgement of the compliment. Focusing on not accidentally trodding all over her feet, Charlie‘s already somewhat lacking conversational skills go directly down the drain. Without much thought, he dances a bit faster, something more modern. It’s quite a few steps before he says, “You’re rather good at this yourself.” The flush now is from dancing, and a smile threatens to actually stay on his face. It wasn’t so bad, dancing with a girl who wasn’t making moony eyes at him or giggling.

“Is there any Raspberry?” the girl asks curiously, looking over everything on the table. “Oh, look, coloricious!” She reaches over and takes a few of them, popping one into her mouth. “Oh, vees are good,” she comments, her mouth full, though she knows better than to do so under normal circumstances. “If they don’t have raspberry, then Strawberry is just fine.” Olivia glances over the table, and especially over at the punch bowl, the area around which seems to be quite crowded.

Saphia Bona smiles, whispering, “You really think so?” mere seconds before stumbling over her own feet and nearly falling. Thankfully, she manages to catch herself before Clavicle has to. “Um, with all due respect, I must disagree, Clavicle…”

Felicity Wexler gives a tremendous squeal as Gabriel stumbles back, having been so close to him that it actually nudges her a bit. The start of surprise that shakes her having been in careful mid-sip of her overly-full punch glass causing her to spill a rather fair amount of it down her front. A look of horror crosses Felicity‘s expression as she gives an upset kind of squeal and sets he cup aside, immediately grabbing for a towel to dry herself off with while looking toward Gabriel and Andy with half-concerned, half-accusing eyes. How was she going to clean herself off? She was so poor with cleaning charms that it was almost laughable. “Oh, what a mess! Are you alright, Gab–Andy?” Her eyes shift up toward the second name with almost a little surprise, her eyes narrowing, though more in uncertainty than annoyance.

“No, thank you,” Lenore murmurs distractedly, still peering at Kelly and Charlie. “Well, if she is being unfaithful to him, then they’ll have a big row about it, and if she was just lying, well, we’ll find out sooner or later. But does he know she has a sweetheart already? That would be really bad.”

Clavicle Gravely to his credit, stumbles as well a moment later, and makes it look like a dance step. “I don’t know…seems to fit the rhythym well.” he grins as the music starts a Miles Davis sounding syncopation to match their odd dancing. “Music to match

Gabriel nods, grinning to Andy as he sighs. “Oh yeah,” he says casually. “Just lost my balance. Sorry,” he adds hoping he hasn’t trod on Andy’s feet (though, with both boys not wearing shoes, the situation wouldn’t be tragic even if he had.) When he looks back to Felicity, though, his eyebrows raise in concern. Uh oh. Girls hated it when they got things spilled on their clothes! “Felicity!” is all he can say at first, not knowing what to do. “Should we get a professor to help?” he asks Andy.

Riley Markham rather pointedly keeps his gaze from the dancefloor as he collects up a small plate of biscuits and sandwhich meats (though forgetting the bread), before making his way back toward the round tables. Pausing briefly, he passes an almost curious glance to Orion, who seems to be sitting on his own drawing, before making his way over to the sixth-year loner. Flopping down in a seat somewhat near the artist, he drops his food on the table and tries to make some non-challant lean to see what it isn that the older boy is drawing. “Havin’ fun, mate?”

Kelly Pantall beams brightly at Charlie, though she is starting to get a little bit breathless from the dancing – not quite to the point of exhaustion, but it seems quite evident that she doesn’t look like she could keep going for very much longer. “Thank you! This is fun, isn’t it?” She twirls again, this time a little more exhuberantly, watching as her skirt bells out around her again. Dancing with friends is ever so much more fun than dancing with someone who fancies you. Not that the Gryffindor girl would really know the difference.

After looking over the choices for a bit, Evan selects two tarts that are at least something red, offering one to Olivia. “This might be. It’s one of the two, anyway..” While talking, he manuvers himself into the line around the punch bowl, still looking over the rest of the table. “Oh, I haven’t seen this type of cheese before.” It’s a pale yellow, and he selects a piece, nibbling at that. “I like it; I’ll have to suggest it for our next party at home.” Chat-y, yes, but he’s surprising comfortable here, for the most part. “Would you like to dance after this? It looks like people are starting now, we wouldn’t be out there alone.”

Saphia Bona smiles, but doesn’t seem to have much more to say. Soon, however, it’s clear that she’s getting a little tired, and is beginning to look fondly at one of the food tables as she dances with Clavicle.

Aisling O‘Cormac shakes her head angrily. “Regardless,” she states, “it’s bad form on her behalf! She should know better than this, she’s, well, old!” Making a move to head towards the dance floor, she stops as she realises Lenore is still behind. Turning, she seems to gather her thoughts before speaking. “Um.” she says, stunningly eloquent. “Our table is closer to the dancefloor, and to Kelly, than we are. How about some food instead of a return there?” No mentioning that if she did go close to Kelly the older girl might end up worse off…

Clavicle Gravely grins and nods to her seeing the look. “Famished I am. Want to grab something and sit a round or two out?”

Kara Raine shrugs, offering Chris a small smile. “How about we just walk around for a bit, I mean I have seen all that there is, but I can show it to you now. There are some really neat games, one that involves tossing a goblin I think.” With a smile, Kara nods her head. “Want to? We can swing around by the food tables and get something to snack on as well.” The girl reaches her hand out toward Chris, but blushes and drops it to her side quickly. “Sound good?”

“Beauty is it’s own entertainment, and it’s own reward,” Orion says, cassually, though with a somewhat dismissive note in his voice toward the nosy Ravenclaw who has chosen to sit beside him. He doesn’t, however, choose to hide his sketch. Naturally, it’s a sketch of people in dress robes. Two, in particular, whom his gaze seems to be flickering toward across the room. Two younger students, displaying a variety of facial expressions that seem to little his parchment. Curiously, though, both the girls who seem to have caught his fancy share a last name. “You needn’t feel compelled to converse with me simply because I’m sitting alone. I enjoy the relative quiet.”

“Bad form?” Lenore whispers, apparently finding that a completely random way of describing it. “Well, okay.” She offers after a moment of silence, and slips off towards the food tables, plucking some tasty treats for herself, then slipping under those tables without another word. Her hand reaches out to beckon Aisling to follow her, though whether the other girl even noticed where she went is entirely uncertain.

“It’s more fun than I thought it would be, sure,” says Charlie in what could possibly be mistaken for (being that it is) an agreeable tone. He slows as it seems a conclusion to the music, or at least part of it, arrives. “Did you want to keep going?” Technically she did say only one song, which he may or may not point out should she say yes. “Or perhaps get something to drink?”

Gasping as she hears the commotion near Gabriel, Briony comes running. “Oh, everyone is alright then? Oh, it’s just Felicity who got it,” she says, a bit of relief flooding her. The girl sighs a bit, standing around as the scene progresses around her. “Well, ahm. Let’s go dance, Albert,” Briony says quickly, dragging the boy towards the floor, pausing momentarily as she spys an older boy watching her. Unsure of what to make of this, the girl skips more quickly towards the floor, donning a pair of the shoes that have been set out and dancing rather quickly and erraticly.

Saphia Bona nods once more, smiling to Clavicle as she finally steps off the dance floor, gently slipping off her shoes as she does so. Almost instantly, a set of Hogwarts house elves start cleaning the shoes with sprays. (Although not daring to actually touch the shoes, just in case that could count as being given clothing!) When they’re done, the shoes are perfectly clean and ready for the next couple… and Saphia is ever so slightly creeped out. But that’s to be expected. She sidles over to the food table with Clavicle and picks up a jam bun from the table, munching happily on it.

There’s quite a line to dunk the goblin, and Katherine Nichols has plenty of time to bounce back and forth between the line and the snack tables, fetching enough brownies and biscuits for herself and all of the others, plus a handful of Bertie Bott’s Beans deposited in her purse among the Knuts and Sickles. Cheerfully munching on a brownie as she slips back in line next to Alexandra, she rises up on her bare tiptoes to peer up to the front of the line – which is much closer now than it was when she left. “How are they doing?” she asks her friends in general.

Chris Jitsunari nods. “Sure.” He notices her hand, his mind goin hectic for a moment before she drops it. The boy smiles while walking over to the games with her. Eyeing the games he just now registers her comment, “Did you say there’s one where you throw a goblin?”

Kelly Pantall seems entirely out of breath when she slows to a halt, kicking the dancing shoes off and shaking her head firmly – her cheeks are quite pinked with exertion, now. “Oh, I would absolutely love to keep going, Charlie,” she offers, once she gets her breath back. “But I really do need a drink. Perhaps in a few minutes? Once I’ve cooled down again?” She doesn’t move to depart yet, awaiting his response.

Andy Carver‘s gaze slowly wanders to Felicity, standing there and trying to dry herself off. “Sorry.” he calls through the commotion in a miserable tone and turning to Gabriel, who had been really nice at least. “Ahm… yes I’m sure Professor Kensington will help us. I’ll go and call her.” With a last apologetic look Andy turns around and walks over to Professor Kensington. Eased to have a few seconds to think about the whole fuss.

Clavicle Gravely grins as he pulls Saphia along towards the food. “I’m famished. Utterly famished.”

Grabbing a disposable plate, Aisling O‘Cormac piles on some pocket bread, some delicatessan meat, and some other savoury foods, as well as a small, green coloured tart. Glancing around carefully, she clambers under the table with Lenore. Looking to the other girl, she offers her something from her plate. “I hope no one important saw us.” she comments, taking a bite out of a bit of pocket bread.

“Well, not throw exactly, there is a dunk the goblin, where you throw balls to hit the target to dunk it. And I think there is a toss game somewhere.” Both hands are clasped tightly behind her back, as Kara chats with her friend.

Felicity Wexler almost, almost growls when Briony comes charging in only to dismiss her own plight and charge out again. But with almost imperial (and impressive) restraint, she reels in her temper and tries to hold in her glower. Shaking slightly, she offers a strained, but sweet smile to Gabriel and Andy before shaking her head slightly. “It’s nothing that won’t come off in the wash. It’s.. Andy, no, really..” Her voice trembles a little as Andy walks away, however. This had taken a decided turn for the worse, and she felt close to crying. She’s distracted from that feeling, however, by Orion. Feeling his eyes upon her, a slightly embaressed sort of look crosses her expression, before she turns back to her date.

Charlie Linwood nods, then, fairly pink the face himself, “Alright, a drink then.” He quite carefully removes his own set of shoes, and remarks in a somewhat surprised tone, “Feels kind of good to be barefoot after all that.” Hopefully the shoes are self-cleaning, because a lot of boys(though not necessarily Charlie!) have stinky feet. And some of the girls. He moves toward the punch, not minding (or hearing) some whispers as he and presumably Kelly, go past.

Before she leaves, Gabriel has opened his mouth to ask Briony how her day is going, but is left hanging as the girl drags Albert off with her. Watching as Andy goes to fetch the professor, Gabriel looks sympathetically to Felicity, and in a moment of genius, actually thinks to comfort her. “Don’t worry Felicity, we’ll get the punch out. It was my fault, really,” he says, smiling near the end. Having followed her glance, however, Gabriel looks over to Orion, who has been looking oddly at Felicity. “Hey,” Gabriel calls, more curious than anything. “What, uh, what are you looking at her for?”

As Clavicle gets caught up with a Slytherin first year (who really seems to like his tattoos), Saphia wanders over to Orion and Riley, whispering, “Those pictures really are very pretty, sir.” She smiles, not knowing his last name.

Lenore Pantall shrugs vaguely, taking a dainty little bite out of whatever it was she plucked from the table, having paid exactly zero attention to exactly what it was she was grabbing. “We aren’t breaking any rules by hiding under the table,” she whispers. “I just hope no one important saw Kelly dancing with a different Hufflepuff boy.”

“That sounds like fun,” she says and glances out towards the floor as she finally gets a cup of punch. “Oh, my! Look, so many of them are wearing shoes! Is that allowed?” She stares for a moment longer, then realizes that all the shoes seem to match. “Interesting, I wonder where they all got them.” She eats a bit of tart and smiles a bit. “It’s raspberry,” she announces to nobody in particular and proceeds to finish it off quickly. Rather hungry for a girl who has only been throwing balls at a small target. Olivia smiles to Evan as he comments about the cheese. “Do you often have parties like this at your house? I imagine it must be quite crowded.”

Riley Markham shoots Orion a somewhat surly expression, picking up his food and moving to the next table over. “Rude son of a..” His gaze, however, follows the voice calling across the tent toward the older Hufflepuff with a slightly curious look. Just vindictive enough to enjoy watching someone getr their just deserts, Riley turns to look upon Orion with a smug smile. Drawing other people’s dates was sure to have interesting consiquences.

Kelly Pantall certainly does follow Charlie, fanning her face with one hand and pouring herself a generous measure of the pale pink punch. “Ugh. You’re right. Dancing is quite a lot of fun, really, but it’s very tiring and not at all dignified.” Never mind the fact that dancing is supposed to be a very dignified activity, not the exhuberant twirling she was engaged in. “You’re a good dancer and a very nice boy, Charlie.” This random compliment comes entirely out of the blue in between mouthfuls of punch, and is said rather airily and flippantly.

The boy snickers at how silly throwing a goblin in a game sounds. “Yeah, guess that wouldn’t be very nice for the goblins.” Chris nods towards the said game, “Ima have a go at it.” He picks up a ball, lobbing it at the target, getting nowhere near. Chris sratches his head nervously, “Harder than it looks.” His face seeming to fight a pink tint throughout the time, obvious that the 11 year old seems to be fighting nervous streaks. Chris smiles and hands the ball to Kara, “How bout you have a go at it?”

Still happily partaking of the snacks, still surrounded by her fellow third-years, Katherine finally makes it up to the front of the goblin-dunking line, taking her place next to Kara and Chris. She readily hands over several Knuts (and a jellybean or two, mixed in with the other contents of her purse), accepts the balls in return, and winds up to take a throw. She doesn’t have much power behind it, and the ball only brushes the edge of the target, but Katherine is having fun, even if she doesn’t come close to dunking the goblin. Still giggling cheerfully, she moves on to try the next game, her friends close behind.

“Ahm…Sorry Professor Kensington. Would you be kind enough…ahm…you know, Felicity…” Andy points over to his friend. “…has spilled some punch on herself and I thought you could…ahm…maybe cast a cleaning charm on her dress.” Andy looks quite confused, which is reflected by his speech. Nevertheless he looks up to the Professor with a begging expression.

Evan Geroff takes a sip of his punch, nodding afterwards as though pronouncing it worth the wait. “Not this large, but Mother occasionaly likes to entertain people.. perhaps I could have you invited to the next one.” Still sipping punch, he (assuming Olivia is agreeable) begins to find his way through the refreshment crowd and out toward the dance floor. “And that answers the second question – that’s where the shoes came from.”

Aisling O‘Cormac shrugs calmly. “It’s not that I think we’d be breaking any rules, exactly. I just think that people would think it a bit odd, that’s all, hiding under a table.” Turning her mind to Kelly and her strange Hufflepuff companion – strange, because he wasn’t her supposed date, Rafe – she asks surprisedly, “Why? She’d get her comeuppance from that! I mean, she can’t just, well, get away with this.” Peering out from under the table, she gasps quietly. “Hey Lenore?” she asks. “Um, Kelly was wearing green, right? I think that might be her right there!” she points, speaking sotto voce.

Orion Kari lifts his gaze slowly, his movement surprisingly graceful and fluid, not unlike a certain Slytherin girl of the same year on that house’s quidditch team. And for a moment, he meets Gabriel’s eyes with a look that could only be described as momentary irritation. “Sketching,” he answers, simply, before pulling his feet off the chair from in front of him and moving to stand. Passing a glance past his shoulder toward Saphia, he shares with her a decidedly rakish sort of smile, before rising. “Thank you, my lady,” he murmurs, turning toward her so that he can incline his head slightly in a neat half-bow in honor of the Ravenclaw girl, before moving toward the dancefloor. Obviously having chosen to ignore Gabriel.

Kara Raine takes the ball, smiling at Chris. “Okay, thanks, maybe Junior squad practice will have paid off?” Bitting her lower lip, Kara hauls her arm back and throws the ball as hard as she can, hitting the edge of the target, but yet not enough to activate the mechanism. “Oh, did you see, I almost had it Chris! But, my dress robes are the easiest things to throw in, why don’t you try again. I’m sure you can do it.” Grin.

Charlie Linwood blinks slowly over his punch at Kelly, and swallowing ventures: “I’m sorry?” Either he didn’t hear, didn’t understand, or did both and is apologizing, given her tone. Another sip of punch, and he doesn’t respond further than that, looking first at his bare toes(which he wiggles), and then at the punch bowl again, and then over at the games, and then back to Kelly, a quick glance to see if she looks cross.

Riley Markham passes a glance toward Saphia, nodding to her briefly, before shooting a look upon Orion that would be fatal if only looks had the power to kill. Dropping back down in to the seat he had taken, he mutters something horribly unkind about Kari under his breath, before taking up another biscuit and chomping down in to it hard.

Lenore Pantall gasps audibly, cringing further under the table and inching away from Kelly, her face a mask of anger and annoyance. “She can’t do that!” She hisses, folding her arms across her chest – whether she means complimenting a different boy, dancing with a different boy or coming over to Lenore‘s little hidey-hole to get a drink is entirely uncertainly. “She can’t, she can’t – I hope Rafe yells at her!” Oh, what a threat. What a threat.

Clavicle Gravely manages to disengage himself from the first year by pointing her towards Sedgewick and saying in a whisper that the professor is accepting extra credit for guessing the punch contents. he flees back to Saphia

“Well, alright then,” the woman agrees and strides over to where Andy has directed. “Is there some trouble over here? I heard someone was in need of a cleaning charm?” Bonnie glances around and looks to Felicity, whose red dress is augmented by some punch. Directing her wand at the scarlet garment, Bonnie quickly mutters a charm and the dress is dry again. “Anything else I can help you all with?” she asks cheerfully.

Still setting the pace on the dance floor, Eliza doesn’t look like she’s even close to being tired. Even though she looks out over the top of the crowd once in a while, giving the scene a quick, searching glance, her attention is mostly on the music. In and out she spins, grinning broadly – and if Geoffrey is distressed by the fact that the Head Girl seems to be paying more attention to dancing than to him, he does not show it. And for her part, Eliza is content to keep dancing, for as long as the music continues.

Kelly Pantall certainly doesn’t notice Lenore hiding under the table at all, even with the strange threat uttered, and just looks at Charlie with a perplexed expression, head tilted slightly to the left as she inspects him. “You’re a good dancer and a nice boy.” Never mind the earlier venom that came with the word nice when referring to Clementine, now she delivers it rather cheerfully. “A very nice boy, and I think that if it weren’t for your secret, I might almost be interested in you. Almost. Because, you know, I’d still like Rafe better.”

Smiling the boy takes the ball, not really thinking he can, but if she insists. Chris looks at the target, this time actually aiming. He pulls his arm back and throws the ball, actually hitting it, knocking the goblin into the water. The boy turns to Kara smiling, “Guess you were right.”

Aisling O‘Cormac clenches her jaw angrily. “That’s it!” she hisses to Lenore. “She can’t be allowed to be like this! It’s just not fair. I don’t care about how crazy she is, I’m going up there to confront her!” Crawling out from under the table just beside where Kelly and Charlie are standing, she stands, shaking her robes clean, and taps Kelly on the shoulder, then waits for her reaction.

Kara Raine giggles, cheering as the goblin takes a dunk. “See, I told you, you could do it! Nice job Chris! Don’t forget your prize.” Glancing around, Kara looks at some of the other games lined up. “Oh, lets go and try some of the others, well, you can try them and I can cheer for you. See, I told you we were going to have fun at this.” Hands still clasped behind her back, the first year Ravenclaw beams to her friend.

“With all sorts of officials, I imagine,” Olivia comments as they make their way towards the floor. “Oh, my, so that’s where the shoes came from. Do you think they’re clean?” she asks and looks down at them, ignoring the fact that her own feet could not be less sanitary than the shoes. “I imagine my parents wouldn’t protest a party with Ministry officials, especially since my dad works there.” She nods resolutely and sets her punch glass down, then leans down to put shoes on, disregarding how clean they are or are not.

Charlie Linwood chokes a bit and then coughs a lot(and blushes a fair amount but he’s just turning red from the choking, honest!!) and then stares at Kelly and then as if it is the only thing he can think of, “I’m not nice, you know.” Then he coughs some more, throat ticklish from the choking as of yet, and then stares at the strange little girl from his House who just… came out from under the table? Charlie just plain gapes. There’s something wrong with the girls at this school tonight, that’s for certain.

Felicity Wexler blushes as Professor Kensington arrives to clean her up with simple flick of her wand, Felicity murmurs an embaressed “thank you” and shakes her head. Gabriel’s shout across the room to Orion, however, catches her attention, making her go somewhat wide-eyed and bringing a whole new shade of scarlet to her cheeks. Pulling her lower lip between her teeth and looking fairly small, she honestly wasn’t sure what to do at this point. She felt in over her head for the first time since arriving.

“Probably self-cleaning,” Evan comments, slipping a pair on himself before reaching for her hand. “I’ll send Mother an owl about it.” It’s only then that he notices the shoes have changed to match the occasional ‘star’ on his robes. “Well, will you look at that.”

Clavicle says, “Saphia.. What’s going on over here? And thanks for setting that first year on me. I think that was that girl with the Sign… I swear if she shows up at our quidditch… I’ll be cross.” he chuckles “Riley…you look cross, what’s going on?”"

Clavicle Gravely ‘s question is not accusatory…but concerned

Kelly Pantall nods her head firmly, observing, “Right. Nice is a really awful word. It implies you have no spine.” She almost sounds like she’s quoting someone for a moment, before her eyes widen in alarm. “Gosh, Charlie, are you alright? Don’t die, please, it’d be just my luck to have my only friend up and die on me when I dance with th – what?” She whirls on Aisling, folding her arms in annoyance. “My friend’s dying, I have no time for this.”

Saphia Bona smiles to Clavicle as he wands back up and smiles, but quickly defends herself, “Oh, it wasn’t my faulty Leonard pounced on you, he’s been wanting to do so all evening. The worst you can fairly accuse me of it deserting you, Clavicle.” She pauses a second, and then whispers, “And, erm, sorry about that.”

Lenore Pantall crawls out from under the table, her cheeks flushed pink with embarassment, her eyes downturned. She tugs on Aisling’s sleeve, not daring to speak, but her expression speaking for her – this isn’t a good idea, really. Plus, her eyes flicker up at Charlie in a mixture of concern and horror, apparently believing wholeheartedly that he actually is dying. In the middle of the social. Some people are so inconsiderate.

Weaving in between couple after couple sharing the large dance floor (which seems surprisingly small now, all thing considered), Orion Kari seems to float through the crowd with a purpose. Pulling a page free from his sketch book as he moves, he makes a point to walk (not by, or around, but..) between Albert and Briony on his way to the tent’s rear exit. His movement one that would seem all to cassual, if not somewhat careless. As he passes, though, he drops the parchement with the sketches he’d been working on. Letting the sheif drift to the Gryffindor girl’s feet.

Rolling her eyes, Aisling glares at the older girl in front of her. “Your friend isn’t dying. And, well, it’d probably be good news for you anyway if he did, because then your date couldn’t kill him for being stupid enough to dance with you!” Having said all of this hardly without breathing, she pauses to take a breath, and notices Lenore’s appearance. Too late to stop her, she’s on a roll now.

“They’ve got flowers on them, just like my gloves, look!” Olivia points out with a laugh, only marvelling a small bit a them. “Let’s get out there before it’s full,” she comments, and indeed the floor seems to be quickly filling up, especially with older students. The girl giggles and stands, momentarily, in the dominant position, blushing a bit as she drops her arms, shocked that she had done such a thing. After all, Helen and Gertrude always made her dance as the boy. She waits for Evan to make his way onto the floor to join her.

Charlie Linwood may be dying, but it is more because his brain has turned into a lump of vegetable mush than because she startled him into choking on his punch. Very, very slowly her alarm registers and it’s in something of a vague, detatched voice that he says, “Not dying.” Sentances apparently having escaped his particular level of thought processing right about now. To Aisling, “Fr…” another cough, “We’re friends.” Here comes his cross face, though not necessarily any level of coherance, “I’m not stupid.” He doesn’t sound in particular smart.

“Rafe’s not going to kill Charlie!” This is obviously the most important part of the whole matter, as Kelly responds to this most indignantly, uncrossing her arms and planting her hands firmly on her hips. “He might, you know, attack him a little but he wouldn’t kill him. That would be murder.” Oh. Poor, poor Charlie. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with just dancing, dancing is fine – if it was any more than dancing it would be bad but it’s not! We’re just friends, and I was being considerate.” She peers around vaguely, apparently wondering where her date actually is.

Riley Markham rolls his eyes somewhat, the banter between Saphia and Clavicle doing little to ease his irritation. Jealousy was terrible mistress. Still, he manages to swallow it as best he can, laying back in his seat with an irritated sort of look. “That Kari prat,” he hisses. “Rudest sod I’ve ever met. Great, terrible bast–” A small gurgle from his stomach, however, catches Riley off guard, pausing him in mid-sentance. Placing his left hand over his belly with a slightly odd expression, he makes a little face and mutters something to himself before reaching up to crack open on of the butterbeer bottles he’d won earlier.”

Saphia Bona pauses, and whispers a second or two after Riley finishes his sentence, “Riley… weren’t you going to be here with someone?” She asks, confused and concerned.

As Briony‘s dancing is interrupted, she stops and stares. “How rude,” she comments rather blandly, watching the older Hufflepuff make his way through the crowds of dancers and drops the bit of parchment. “Oh, no, he dropped this.” She leans down to pick up the sheaf and stands straight again. “Albert, you don’t mind if I take it to him, do you? Here, you can dance with Kalynn, if you want. Kalynn! Dance with Albert, won’t you? Fantastic!” The girl grins and trots off to try to return the sheaf to Orion.

Clavicle Gravely hmms. “Right. Well Riley…you are here. you have to dance.” he grins and goes to pull Riley up. “Come on then.”

Aisling O‘Cormac almost snorts at Kelly’s last point. “Considerate?” she queries, “How, considerate? Would not staying with your date, or even knowing where he is be considerate? You were being selfish, and probably inherently nasty, too, by dancing with another boy, regardless or not of whether he was aware of your motives!” Having said what is at the forefront of her mind, she continues, “And how DARE you prattle on about serial killers, scaring people, especially your sister-” there we go, her famous subtlety at work again “-into being small and scared of new things, people, places, and social events, because they could be caught by a killer! It’s just so foolish! And small-minded of you.” she huffs, pulling hard on one of her tightly-wound plaits.

“He’s allowed to go where he wants without me keeping tabs on him!” Kelly retorts angrily, apparently resenting the fact that someone else has noticed that she actually doesn’t know where her date is right now. “If Rafe wants to wander off he can – and dancing with Charlie doesn’t count as dancing with another boy!” Someone should have warned Charlie that she simply can’t keep secrets. However, to her credit, she at least doesn’t expand on this point any further before whirling around to face the Hufflepuff boy again. “You’re not really dying, are you? You’re going to be alright, yeah?”

The boy and his friend go around to various games, winning a few, losing a few. Chris‘s stomach growls and he smiles nervously to Kara, “Let’s get some food.” She agrees as they walk to the food tables, Chris picks up a few items of food. As he snacks he notices all the commotion, two of the people involved he recognizes as fellow housemates. Muttering, “I wonder what’s got them all angry.”

Riley Markham almost chokes on his butterbeer with Saphia’s query, gagging and coughing as the amber liquid leaks briefly from the corners of his mouth. “Ah, that! Er, well, you see,” Riley mutters, meekly, wheezing for breath, brushing his mouth off on his sleeve and scracthing the tip of his nose with his scarred index finger. “I, er… she, well, got dumped, eh? Decided she wan’d tah go with some older Slytherin prat.. Ah, so, er… S’alright, eh. I, er… what?” Riley‘s eyes bug slightly as Clavicle starts to pull him up, moving almost immediately to shake the boy off. Not violently, but fairly adimantly. “If you think I’m dancing with you, yer a lark! Even under that femina-felto potion, yer.. well, not my type, eh?”

Clavicle says, “Come come …I’ve never known a Markham to be a coward…rise to the challenge then. Off to the floor with you.” he grins. “And not JUST me…you prat. Bopth of us…. go on.”"

Aisling O‘Cormac looks confused for a moment. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Charlie is a boy. You were dancing with him. How does this not count as dancing with another boy, hm? And what about the serial killer stuff? You haven’t denied a single thing about it, but I doubt that you’re sorry in the slightest! The prefects were right to take those books away from you, you’re too socially dangerous!” Glaring at Kelly, she spares a moment for a side glance to Lenore, who looks like she wishes she wasn’t there. “Sorry, Lenore,” she whispers to the girl beside her. Facing back to Kelly, she straightens her back, making her all of five foot tall, and continues to galre.

Charlie Linwood apparantly has the presence of mind to say, “You’re the one who said I’d be killed… and I don’t think Kate could possibly make her sister short.” Charlie‘s voice is a mix between cross and utterly confused, and after a moment, he says, “She isn’t–” and he chokes on the air this time, wheeling on Kelly, “Ssssshhhhhh!” is hissed, and then, all his senses returning with the near escape of certain secrets, “I’m not going to die but I’m… not going to be alright, either.” Here he actually stamps his foot, which is ridiculous and ineffectual, since they’re outside and barefoot. “You should be with DeWitt. Not me.” Color rises into his cheeks again, and his face twists up oddly. “Not me.”

Kelly Pantall seems utterly confused for a moment, whirling around to face Aisling, then back to face Charlie, then back to face Aisling again, then steps back and glares at both of them in turn. “I’m not socially dangerous! And, well,” she seems on the brink of sharing Charlie’s secrets for real when she turns to glare at him again. “I can’t even pay you a stinking compliment, and you go on a crazy rampage as if I was trying to woo you! I HAVE A BOYFRIEND, CHARLIE! I’M NOT INTERESTED IN YOU!” This particularly loud and high-pitched point made, she whirls around and storms away. Whether her point actually makes sense in context is entirely uncertain. She certainly thinks it does.

Orion Kari had just stepped beyond the aft exit of the tent when Briony catches up to him. His hands buried in his pockets, his sketchbook tucked under one arm, he seems distinctly bored. His gaze shifts skyward, as the light dwindles and the stars begin to twinkle and shine. Not seeming to notice Briony’s following him, he meanders his way toward the small cliff overlooking the southeast, his movements slow and paced, despite the damp weather outside the tent.

Aisling O‘Cormac stares after Kelly as she storms off. “She didn’t get it.” she says calmly. Turning to Lenore, she says once more, “She didn’t even get it! Is she a little bit.. well, backwards, or something?! Because I thought it was pretty clear!” Tugging on one of her plaits, she looks cross.

Lenore Pantall shakes her head silently, shrugging her shoulders lightly. When she does speak, it is at that same barely audible tone, as if she is afraid of being overheard. “She never gets the point.” There is an edeg of sympathy in her voice – though, from context, probably more sympathy for Aisling and Charlie than for Kelly. “I’m sorry, Mister.” She directs to Charlie, her eyes downturned. “Kelly’s a bit weird.”

“Wait! Wait up!” Briony calls, running after him carefully, unused to being barefoot. “You there!” She trots a bit faster, trying to catch up with him. “You dropped this… this paper!” she tells him and shakes it in his direction. Bri has not taken the time to look at exactly what the sheet has on it, but she figures it must be something important. She finally catches up to him, a bit breathless and holds it out to him, putting one hand on her stomach as if to still her breathing. “You dropped this,” she tells him, her breathing rough.

Charlie Linwood is riled up, and shouts after her, “You know good and well I’m not interested in you, either, Pantall!” His voice raises as the distance increases, “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO CAN’T SAY ANYTHING NORMALLY!” he remains rooted to the spot for a moment and then, forgetting to decrease his volume, “She’s not weird!!” Another stamping of the foot, and he storms off in an opposite direction, muttering darkly to himself and making a few first year girls squeal and run out of his way.

Riley Markham blinks, momentarily having to decide between popping Clavicle for slighting his pride and proving his housemate right by turning tail and running like a frightened little girl. Well, discression is the better part of valor. “Leg’go, you silly snake,” Riley says, wrenching his arm free with great effort, before flickering his gaze toward Saphia then back to Clavy. “Later, al’ight?” He says, with a weary sort of chuckle, digging his way out of things. “Yer dates tired, eh? And hungry. S’might be a good time fer us to make like gentlemen and fetch her some food and punch?” Of course, he hasn’t bothered to look if either actually already have food. At this point, he’s playing last line defenses.

Saphia Bona smiles, and comes to Riley’s aid, “Clavicle, I’ve had that jam bun. You sure you don’t want to come with me and point out which of those butterbeer bottles have the repelling charm on them?”

Clavicle Gravely grins a bit. “Sure. I will go and fetch some food.” he turns and walks to the food table and snags a tray and is happy as a lark when suddenly he crouches. A shadowy form beside the table, house elf size…whispers something to him and he blinks. Clavicle nods and takes something…wrapped in red silk from the elf, and carefully folds it into his pocket. The Elf then skirts back to the shadows. He stands, his tray forgotten for a few long moments as the boy merely thinks. He then shrugs as he takes up the tray and continues collecting things for he and his friends.

Orion Kari pauses just at edge of the small cliff, glancing back over his shoulder toward the shouts of the second-year Gryffindor so seriously attempting to call his attention. The thin, misty moisture in the air adding a shimmer to his olive-skinned features in the reflected light of the sunset behind them. “Yes, I did,” he whispers, simply, though he makes no move to pull his hands from his pockets or retrieve the parchment. The notebook, and the sheif of paper in Briony’s hand seem completely unmindful of the dampness about, as if the thin rain were unable to touch them.

Riley Markham flops back down in to his chair with obvious relief, clapping his hands over his face and muttering something unintelligable in to them, before giving a great and lengthy sigh.

As Clavicle starts returning, Saphia‘s found a chair a little ways away from Riley, having decided to give him lots of space tonight. She simply sat at one of the tables, watching the room thin out a little as the night starts coming to a close. It was a lot of fun. More fun than she thought it’d be. As Clavicle gets back to her, she smiles gratefully to him. “Cheers.” She whispers.

Clavicle Gravely grins. “So lets get a butterbeer in us then we can go check out the games.” he grins “I can show tyou how to spin toss the ring which counteracts the bounce charm.

“He-here it is,” she tells him and holds it out to him. “I thought you might want it.” Briony is very obviously taken aback by Orion’s demeanor. Her eyes are a bit wide and she has her arm fully extended to hand him the parchment. She reaches up and smooths her hair a bit, hoping that the mist is not ruining it, then smooths her dress somewhat self-consciously, as if she had always been so conscious of how she looked.

Riley Markham rubs at his eyes briefly, as though nudging the sleep from them before lifting his head with a small smile toward Clavicle. Genuine, even. Reaching up before the boy has set the tray down, he snatches up a roll of amoriare meat and chomps down in it with a small smirk. “Seems like she’s coming along well, eh, my gran?” His tone is somewhat dubious, though he is clearly impressed. “People seem to be take to her, this here went over well.” He lets his thought trail off as he turns his gaze absently aside, staring off at nothing in particular. That third-wheel feeling creeping up on him again.

Clavicle says, “She’s brilliant” he grins at Riley. “If only she’d run interference with my crazy grandmother so I won’t get anymore howlers about violins.” he sighs. He grins at Saphia and grins his grin which shows he has a secret.”

Saphia Bona smiles at Clavicle and accepts one of the bottles of butterbeer, and begins walking over toward the games, letting Clavicle and Riley have a conversation without her.

Orion Kari turns very slowly on his bare feet to face Briony, a small, low smile touching his curious lips. A faint whisper of something more, begging to be seen, to be drawn out. With all the charisma and allure of as might be portrays by a muggle actor in one of their moving pictures, Orion draws a step closer to Briony. Followed by another, and another, until his chest nearly touches her extended hand bearing the parchment. “It was mine, now it’s your own. A gift,” he whispers, quietly. His tone full and rich, and just a hint amused. “A reward for one of my evening’s muse. The fairest by far.”

“Brilliant might be a stretch,” Riley mutters, accepting a butterbeer as well and cracking it open with a satisfied sort of sound (especially since he had spilled a fairly large portion of the one he had been drinking before). “But she’s doing well. It bothers me, though. It just seems so.. wrong.”

“O– oh,” Briony answers, obviously taken in by his charm and charisma. She almost feels herself swooning as she turns her face downward — almost regretfully — to look at the drawings that he has gifted to her. Upon it are drawings of not just herself, but Felicity as well, very good drawings, depicting them in various scenarios and moods. “Oh my,” she breathes, almost as if she doesn’t blieve in the situation. “Is this really what my dressrobes look like,” the girl asks rather breathlessly as he looks up at him, eyes wide.

Clavicle says, “You just got to realize Riley…having her here is one of the best things that could happen…and really, she cares about you… and it’s proof positive there’s greatness in your bloodline.” he shrugs and trots off to meet Saphia at the rings”

Felicity Wexler having watched Orion and Briony sneak away, Felicity can’t help but follow. Curiousity alone would have pulled her, even if it weren’t for her small awe at the momentary attention she’d recieved from the rather handsome young man. Excusing herself for the lavatory while Gabriel and Nate continue chatting, Felicity ducks through the thinning crowd, slipping out the rear entrance of the tent quietly, only having to glance about briefly to find her cousin and the older Hufflepuff standing some distance off. And it’s a sight that catches her breath. “He’s beautiful,” she murmurs, to no one other than herself, as she watches the exchange. Far enough away that she can only barely hear what’s being said over the ambient noise radiating from the tent.

“Alright,” Saphia remarks as Clavicle pulls up beside her, “Show me how to do this…”

“Oh, no, blossom,” Orion murmurs softly, his voice falling from his lips like rich honey song. “No, I’m afraid not.” A coy, almost fierce look touches his deep, mahagony eyes as he leans in close to Briony. Close enough that perhaps from Felicity’s view, it might almost seem as though he were kissing the second-year holding the parchment. “For I am a meager artist, weak and poor. Unable to capture the true beauty of my muse.” His breath near enough to taste for that moment, like fruit. “Your dress, and the beauty donning it, are much more stunning than my quill can ever capture.” And without another word, he rises back to his full height and moves to walk away, head back in the direction of the castle. Humming, quietly.

Clavicle Gravely nods and shows her how to spin the ring which looks like it will make the ring miss. But instead…it reverses the repellant charm and the ring sticks to the first bottle. He looks at her as the goblin scowls, “A Gravely… you may not play this game!” it rudely states!

Saphia Bona blinks at the goblins rudeness, and whispers back, “How dare you! Just because he could actually win, you ban him playing? Well, well, that’s very smart. I suppose. But very unfair!”

Riley Markham exhales a small, almost bitter sigh, before leaning back in his chair. Clavicle had a point, and he knew it, though he didn’t really want to ponder that. The crowd continues to thin as Riley sits there, waiting and waiting. Being the only boy on the events committee, he’d been contracted to help clean up. Pull chairs about and the like.

Clavicle Gravely grins and takes the goblin banning in stride. “Oh no it’s alright…I can just go teach everyone this trick…” the goblin scopwls at Saphia, but doubly so at Clavicle. “Alright…you can play once…IF you stay quiet.” it grumpily states and sits back scowling. “Try it Saphia.” he grins… Obviously his family has dealt with Goblins before.

Staring in awe as the older boy makes his way back to the castle, Briony turns and watches him, then takes several steps, as if to ask him more questions, to bask in his glory. She stops short, though, coming into a sliver of light and gazing down at the parchment in sheer amazement. Was that really her? Of course, she paid little attention to the drawings of Felicity, but focussed entirely on those of herself in awe and amazement.

Saphia Bona attempts it… and sends a hoop spinning wildly and far too powerfully. It pings off one of the bottles, flies upward into the goblin’s head, and by pure chance lands on one of the butterbeer bottles perfectly. Saphia rejoices with a delighted squeek and asks, “Does that mean I win a prize?”

Clavicle Gravely grins and looks at the goblin. The goblin shoves a stuffed dragon of Mauve fabric “I hope you both choke on it!” he states as he closes the shutters. Clavicle laughs, “They hate losing.”

Saphia Bona smiles, taking her dragon with her, and whispers to Clavicle, aware now that they’re one of the few couples left. “Thank you, Clavicle. I had a wonderful time tonight. You’re a perfect gentlemen.” As nice a compliment as it is, it’s a hint that the night is over.

Felicity Wexler watches Orion walk away, exhaling a breath she’d not realized she’d been holding. And it’s only once he is fully out of view that she bursts foward, her bare feet slapping at the loose soil (for once) without regard for the small flesh of mud and moisture that slap up on to her skirt. Without a word, she makes a snatch for the parchment, attempting to lice it from Briony’s hand while she’s distracted. A flush of anger touching her face. How could she have gotten something, when the boy had been looking at her?! “What’s that, huh?!”

Clavicle Gravely nods “Shall I escort you back?

“Hey now, he gave it to me! Don’t be grabby, Felicity,” Briony snaps, quickly turning so that Felicity can’t take it from her. “Why don’t you go back to your date?” the girl suggests, scowling a bit as she remembers just who Felicity’s date is. Bri does not look at all pleased. “Anyway, it’s mine and he gave it to me, and if I could get your ugly face off of it, I would.” She hmphs and starts walking back towards the tent to find her own date, who she has hoisted off on her friend Kalynn for the time being.

Saphia Bona smiles, but shakes her head. “I’m going to help Riley pack up. I don’t think he’s had a good a night as we have. But you go on, OK? I’ll be back later for a game of Wizo-Chess.” She makes her offer, smiling her best, and leans over, giving Clavicle a tiny peck on the cheek.

Riley Markham pushes his himself up finally, noting that only a few stragglers and house-elves remain — those couples to involved in games or snogging to care that the night has ended, or those scattered adults still chittering and chatting aimlessly about whatever it is that adults talk about. Taking up the rubbish that Clavicle and Saphia left behind when they went to go play games, Riley sighs and bins it, before manually helping move chairs across the room for house-elves to vanish.

Clavicle says, “Right.” he looks uncertain, As if he should argue, but when he gets the peck on the cheek he grins stupidly. “Right…wizo-chess.” he wanders hogwarts-ward. “Chess…with Wizo’s.” he nods.”

Though Briony holds it tightly enough to keep her from stealing it, she can’t prevent Felicity from seeing it that moment they’ve both got hold of it. “Hey, I’m on it, too! Those are–HEY!” The third-year’s eyes narrow and she gives a great sort of huff, watching Briony head back toward the tent with a sudden flare of anger. “You, you, you! You ugly brat!” She spits, but having noticed that her “date” seems to have offended Briony, rather than get beat up by the physically superior girl, she decides to fully launch the emotional artillery. And without another word, she seeks out Gabriel again, putting on her extra-cute face.

Saphia Bona walks over to Riley as he packs up, and shows him the new dragon doll she got, which yawns noiselessly as it curls up in her arms. “Wanna name it?” She grins to him as she places the dragon on a table and picks up a chair, helping stack it on top of a second one, upside down.

“Don’t, Felicity! We don’t need to lose more points for Gryffindor just because you’re a stupid, jealous bratface!” Briony huffs into the tent, pausing once inside, to try to calm herself. Somehow, the magic of the moment has been ruined for her, and she now just wants to go upstairs and get out of her dress. “Albert, is it alright if I go up to my commons now,” she asks her date quietly, holding the sheet casually at her side. He agrees and the two of them stride up to the castle and disappear through the entrance.

Riley Markham goes to a great, great length to pretend he saw no kiss on the cheek a moment before pass between one of his housemates to another. Nope, he didn’t see anything of the sort out of the corner of his eye, oh no. Not at all. Though he hardly seems surprised when Saphia comes over. “How ’bout Grav–” He starts, a slightly bitter tone in his voice which he catches almost immediately, spawning a cringe and a small shake of his head. Reaching out to take up her chairs, he adds them to his own and starts across the room. “Robert?”

Saphia Bona nods, and agrees immediately, “Robert, then. He’s now officially a boy.” The dragon sleeps, it’s belly exposed and just dying to be ticked. “You turned her down, didn’t you?” Saphia whispers, incredibly quietly. “When she asked you out. You turned her down.”

Felicity Wexler lingers quite a bit longer with Gabriel than Briony, wanting to make her point. But eventually she and her date retire to the common rooms as well, though Felicity seems more tired now than amused. At least her feet didn’t hurt from wearing uncomfortable boots.

Darius Dwight sighs as the night starts coming to a close. He’s not really sure what to do now. Usually he’s never around once the party ends. Responsibilities, he thinks to himself. Reluctantly, he begins packing up the instruments.

“S’ah good name, eh? S’my dad’s. I wonder how he’s doing?” Riley muses, setting the chairs aside, which the house-elf in front of him promptly vanishes with a poof of smoke. Saphia’s question, however, draws a long sigh from Riley and he turns on his naked heel (tearing a small divot in the grass as his jagged scars tug at the soil). “That’s silly, ‘phia. Got dumped, like I said.” But Riley is naturally a notoriously bad liar. It follows through in to every part of him, including how moved pick up the next few chairs.

Saphia says, “C’mere,” Saphia whispers, dragging Riley away from his chair stacking duties. She tugs him to the one last assembled piece of the tent — the dance floor. Even the shoes have been packed up, and the instruments were a while ago. “One more dance, Riley. Please?”"

Riley Markham pauses, briefly, before finding himself pulled away from his cleaning duties. He was, quite naturally, strong enough to pull away. But something about her tugging, her insistance, broke his will to resist, and once they reach the dance floor and he turns to face her. Something inside his eyes, something across his features, changes. It’s one of those moments, more magical than anything that can be created with a wand. All the torture and frustration of the evening seem to slip away. The pain and the weariness from his illness, the stress of quidditch practice and school work.. It all fades from his eyes, as he looks at her. It may be just a kind gesture, it may be something more. In the long run, it really doesn’t matter, because was Riley looks down upon her in that moment, she’s the only thing in his world. “You sure?” He asks, quietly, and somewhat nervously, as he takes a step closer to her. Moving his arms somewhat hesitantly, as though to mimic what he had seen being down earlier. “Your date might not like it.” The faint smile warming his lips, though, whispers of humor in those words. Something to gently combat the small flush of nervousness running across him.

Sighing, Saphia simply holds one of Riley’s hands as they dance, letting his arm wrap around her gently. Much as with Clavicle, she’s not pressed against her dance partner, nor does she let Riley get away with anything. She’s just a dance partner, and a friend. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you finish speaking, I was just so happy to hear you’d been asked, and happy for me. I was selfish. I thought I’d been handed a solution to all my problems, and I didn’t think of your feelings once. I’m so sorry, Riley.”

Riley Markham chuckles, not daring enough to pull her close or try anything untoward. His heart is brilliantly racing even with this — dancing was somewhat frightening to him, despite it’s excitement. Simply being this close was enough to make him sweat slightly. His lead is fairly off, and his sway is a bit wonky. He really is the sort more suited to throwing punches than leading a dance. But never the less, there he is. His expression softens, and for the first time in a very long time, the unguarded, unangered, unpained image of Riley shimmers forth. “Yeah, well..” He whispers, bowing his head a little. “It wasn’t very fair of me, either. And it made things easier on you, so.. I’m sorry, for.. putting pressure on you, I guess.” And he was sorry, though he wasn’t entirely sure what for. He had no way of quantifying his feelinsg, whatever they were. He knew he had been jealous, and he knew he had been a royal pain. It just.. Quietly, in a voice unshrouded by dry it or dark humor, he asks, “Is it strange, that.. after everything that happened last year, I want to be around you and help protect you?” And honestly, he didn’t know the answer. He hardly knew the question. But he’d figure it out eventually.

Saphia Bona is silent, and has no way to answer that question. She doesn’t understand it either. But then she does have one, and she smiles, “I want to help you too, Riley. I know I can’t help you against Dark Wizards, or even the headmistress.” She smiles shyly, “But … anything I can help with, I want to. Don’t ever feel shy about asking me for anything.” She pauses, just dancing a little more in the silence. “Have you started your transfiguration homework?” She asks, suddenly.

Riley Markham can’t help but smile, as his gaze lifts to meet her own. His deep, dust-green eyes soft. Soft in a way that few people ever got to see. He’d been about to inform her that she had, actually, helped defend him against a dark wizard — or at least one they thought was dark at the time, or that she was forever helping him with his gran without ever trying. Her question tailing it, however, catches him completely off guard and he starts so greatly that he almost proceeds to pick Saphia up and drop her again. “Bloody hell, no! I’ve been to busy with this mess! DAMN IT!” His eyes wide and weary again, and looking somewhat flustered, he grips her hand with his left, scarred one (to flustered to notice), gripping it gently and tugging her almost immediately toward the exit of the tent. “I’ll flunk this midterm if I don’t pass this, com’on!” Romance, budding or nonexistant as it may be, forgotten in the wake of crisis. And the house-elves snicker.

Saphia Bona spins away as Riley dashes for his homework, and smiles at just how hopeless Riley is. And she finishes packing up the chairs for him.

Melvina Prichard watches from the far corner of the room, having been forgotten by all but the house-elves. Many of whom show up at Saphia’s side to deal with the chairs for her, ushering her on. And Melvina can’t help but grin. Her husband would have been proud.

The divination classroom appears to be rather neat and tidy, as classrooms often are at the start of a school year. The room seems to have been aired out from the smoky atmosphere that it previously embodied. Above the entryway into the main classroom a sign is posted that states, “PLEASE HANG UP YOUR BAGS AND WEATHER GEAR. SUPPLIES ONLY IN THE CLASSROOM.” Bonnie is seated at the desk in the classroom, a stack of parchment to her left and a quill in said hand. She stands to stride over to the board on the side of the classroom and posts two lists, one of books, the other of rules. There is space remaining, and one might wonder what the space is exactly for. The woman appears to be quite calm and ready to begin her first year as a Hogwarts Professor.

Entering the Divitnation classroom with a bit of a flourish and a bit of redness to his cheeks Vincent seems to be in a rush to get his bag hung and his supplies ready. “Blimey I thought for sure I’d be late. Who went and changed the castle around like that?” He asks another Slytherin close by. Vincent quickly takes a seat and smiles to Professor Kensington.

The approach of Kelly Pantall is, as usual, determinable from a distance of several metres at least, with the sound of her excessively loud voice and the clunking of her heavy boots echoing through the castle and giving warning of her boisterous approach far before she comes into sight. This is quite a change from her melancholy these last few days, certainly, but the content of her chattering does not give it away at all. “– reading a muggle ‘paper over the summer, right, and it had this really great article about the history of Jack the Ripper and all the theories so now I have it all in one nice succinct report, and it has this picture of a guy skulking in the darkness, but it’s a bit dodgy in my opinion because you can hardly tell he’s skulking because he’s not even moving –”

Rudy Foster manages to crawl through the hole in the floor and slouches the rest of the way in, dutifully hanging his things before taking a seat near Bonnie. The boy is clutching his copies of the Guide to Everything in Divination and Unfogging the Future like they were life preservers. Probably just nervous. “Professor Calwern, I think,” he offers quietly to Vincent as he finally sets down his things.

Puffing with exertion as she reaches the top of the ladder, Katherine Nichols steps into the Divination room, looking around with wide, wondering eyes at her new surroundings. A crisp new bookbag – already overflowing with crumpled parchments and Chocolate Frogs both wrapped and unwrapped – is slung over the plump little Hufflepuff girl’s shoulder. She calls out a cheerful greeting to a few of her housemates as she enters…but shoots a wary glance towards Kelly, and pointedly takes a seat on the opposite side of the room from the Gryffindor girl.

Felicity Wexler steps slowly, quietly in to the classroom at the top of the divination tower; a slightly abashed, fearful look dancing across her tired, puffy features. Her cheeks and eyes were still red from after her last cry after being told off by another group of upperclassmen from her house about the points she had helped lose. After a small cry in the privy, she’d collected herself and hauled on to class; after all, she’d been looking forward to this all summer! Who wouldn’t be? Fortune telling, knowing the future.. It would be brilliant, just like those love readings she’d seen done in the common room last year by the same girls who had just told her off.. It would be brilliant. But she wished she’d had more time to clean up.. Hanging up her bad and cloak, as instructed, she looks for a seat, taking the nearest one to her.

Sit all the way across the room from Kelly? Why ever would one do that? Clementine enters not long after her fellow Hufflepuff in the last phase of braiding her own second pigtail sloppily. She slips in to sit by Kelly once she’s shed her cloak outside of the classroom, crossing her legs and tossing a furtive little glare towards Brandie while finishing with her messy hair.

Melvina Prichard strides in to the room a few moments after the last student has entered and hung his things, moving to unobtrusively a seat at the back of the classroom as though it were an entirely usual, normal, everyday occurance that the Headmistress would show up for third year divination. Smoothing out her emerald green robes and politely removing her wide-brimmed, pointed hat, the Melvina leans back in her chair and crosses one knee over the other in a comfortable sort of way, hands clasped together in her lap. She doesn’t say a word to anyone unless spoken to, though she does offer a few smiles and nods as she shifts her gaze toward one of the windows, humming an amused noise to herself as she watches the a light, but steady rain fall just beyond the glass.

“Alright, alright, settle in everyone,” Bonnie says, returning to the center of the room. If the woman is nervous at all, it doesn’t show. “Welcome to Divination! My name is Professor Bonnie Kensington. As you all know, this is my first year at Hogwarts as a teacher. I hail from Ravenclaw in class –” she stops herself. “Well now, that isn’t important, now is it?” She chuckles for a moment and sets her quill down, and picks her wand up, swish-and-flick, forcing a piece of chalk to write her name onto the Blackboard. “This term, you will be introduced to Divination,” the chalk follows, itemizing things as she speaks, “And all of its facets. We’ll have brief overviews of all the subjects, and then after the winter Holidays we will begin our in-depth study of the reading of tea leaves. Now, this is all posted on the board behind you, so if you are unsure, I encourage you to check on that board for confirmation. You are also welcome to come ot me with questions at any time. Now, if I could have you all introduce yourselves aloud, starting from my right,” she finishes, gesturing to the student at the table to her direct right, smiling around at all the students.

Vincent Molbie stands up and clears his throat. A gentle almost timid voice comes from the Slytherin. “My name is Vincent Molbie, Professor. And its a pleasure to meet you. Im sure this will be my favoright new class.” At this a few of the other students snicker as it sounds like hes sucking up a bit. “Errm thank you…” He says unsure of himself and retakes his seat.

Rudy Foster blinks once at Vincent, then slowly follows suit, standing and staring at his classmates. “Um. Rudy Foster.” Easy enough. He quickly sits and starts fidgeting with a quill.

Standing seems to be the thing to do, so Katherine bounces up to her feet, scattering a Chocolate Frog wrapper on the ground as she does – the frog itself is nowhere to be seen, but a few telltale smudges of chocolate cling to the edges of the girl’s mouth. “I’m Katherine Nichols,” she says, offering a bright, hopeful smile, and slips quickly back into her chair again.

Felicity Wexler blinks as it comes to her, and with a slightly sudden expression–trying to wipe the red from her cheeks with an all-to-obvious inconspicuous brush of her shirt sleeve, she rises and tries to find her most confident voice but failing. Think of something to say! THINK! “I-I’m Felicity Wexler, and.. and..” She swallows, stammers, and blurts out the first thing that hits her lips. “..and I want to learn how to do love readings!” She gives a little, embaressed squeak, opens her eyes wide, and sits down quickly, for once in her life glad that her wildy, golden locks are so curly and bushy, as it gives her something to hide her blush behind behind.

Clementine stands up quickly, calling out in a squeak of a voice, “Clementine Duncan…but everybody jus’ calls me Clem.” She lets out an obnoxious nervous little giggle. In a moment, her tiny peep of a voice is gone and she’s back in her seat, slouching over slightly and throwing an alarmed glance towards Kelly as if to comment on how incredibly stressful and difficult this class is already. Standing… and talking… Ugh.

Kelly Pantall looks up at Clementine as she sits down, smiling to her broadly. “Hello, Clementine!” A pause, and she looks up at Bonnie, leaping to her feet with a broad smile. “I’m Kelly Pantall,” she begins slowly and thoughtfully. “I want to do this class so I can find out all about, um, like, who murderers are and stuff! Like, if I can see the crime occurring and can see who they are, so they can be caught!” Crime fighter! She then sits back down and offers, in much lower tones, akin to a hoarse whisper, to Clementine, “Hey, guess what!” Then, before she can guess, the Gryffindor explains. “I have a date to the barefoot social.”

Melvina Prichard glances around the room with a bit of amusement as it comes to her, but without missing a bit she uncrosses her legs, smoothes her robe, and stands for all the class to see. Grinning softly to one in particular. “My name is Bertha Melvina Prichard, and I think also will be my new favorite class and would like to learn how to do love readings. I enjoy spiced tea.” Her gaze shifts toward Kelly, and she arches a brow toward the girl with a slightly amused look. “Congratulations on your date, dear.” That said, she slips back in to her seat and resumes the same pose she had a moment before. She does pass Professor Kensington an amused expression, though. Clearly, she’s having fun.

“Alright, fantastic,” the teacher exclaims and turns for a moment to wipe the board clean of everything except where the chalk has written each student’s name in a line, though spellings may be botched here and there in the list. “If you would all open your books to the first chapter of The Unabridged Guide, I would be much obliged. And please retrieve that bit of litter, Miss Nichols. And girls, I know the social is exciting, but please save the chatter for after class. Thank you.” The thanks are expressed in such an upbeat tone of voice that one might expect that Bonnie hadn’t just given a direct order to a student. The woman gives a single smile to the Headmistress, but pays no particular attention to the woman. After all, it is the students she is to be teaching.”Now, let us start by talking about Divination. Everyone has got their preconceived ideas of what Divination is and what it strives to achieve. Can someone give me some examples?” Her eyes scan the room for raised hands.

Kelly Pantall turns faintly pink at this sudden attention from the Headmistress, though she doesn’t sink down in her chair or anything of the sort – no, no, she must face these things headon. “Er.. thank you, Headmistress.” She does, however, stop whispering and sit up all the straighter, eyes focused completely on Professor Kensington.

Vincent Molbie hurrys and opens his book the the aformentioned chapter only glanceing at the Headmistress through the corner of his eye. Whispering to a friends next to him Vincent asks “Is she taking a class? How odd is that?” Perking up and raising his hand high in the air Vincent is sure he can give a fair example.

“Yes, ma’am,” Katherine gulps. A quick blush pinkens her plump cheeks, and she hastily bends down to retrieve the candy wrapper, and tucks it away in her pocket. Then down she goes again, tugging ‘The Unabridged Guide’ out of her satchel, and she flips hurriedly through it, bending down the corners of a few pages in her rush. But her hopeful smile remains, and she puts her hand in the air, brightening with the pleasure of knowing an answer to _this_ question, at least.

Barely a moment passes before her exhuberance returns and Kelly waves her left hand in the air, surrounded by a sudden silent aura of ‘ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me!’. Her right hand, however, scrawls a message on a piece of paper, and pushes it over towards Clementine – ‘you’ll never guess who’, followed by a little happy smiley face with big eyebrows. The book is opened in front of her, too. What a good student.

“How about Miss Nichols first, and then we’ll hear from Mister Molbie,” Bonnie states, directing her hands to each of them in turn. “And we can hear from Miss Pantall following them. Be sure to let the others finish first.” A glint is in Professor Kensington’s eye, as if she is playfully winking at the students who raise their hands, directing them in what order to answer.

Somehow ‘please save the chatter for after class’ translated into ‘chatter more quietly’ in Clem’s mind. She smiles to the Headmistress – deciding, for the moment, that the woman is nice. She whispers softly, leaning in close to Kelly, “I know I was with Rafe when he got your note!” Clementine holds down excited giggles, biting down on her bottom lip hard. She follows directions swiftly while she whispers, finding the time to jot down on the paper ‘He was so excited!’. She looks up, worried, when Kelly’s name is mentioned. Oh crap, what are they doing?

Rudy Foster does open the book as bidden, but raising his hand? Not happening. He’ll just… wait to see what happens next.

Felicity Wexler just sits quietly, her hands folded in her lap, red up to the ears.

Eagerly, Katherine wriggles a little farther forward in her seat – almost as far as the edge of her desk, except that the corner of her book pokes her first, bringing her to an abrupt and uncomfortable stop. “Er. Yes, ma’am,” she replies, bringing her hand down again. She glances around the room – but there are no cues to take; she must make the decision herself, and after another moment’s hesitation, Katherine wriggles out of her seat and stands up to answer the question. “It’s, well, it’s telling the future,” she begins, with the same hopeful smile. “With stars, and tea, and cards and things. And…if you know when someone is born, you can figure out where the stars were, and you can tell about their future.” Katherine is starting to falter – there is much more hope than confidence in her smile now – but she still pushes ahead valiantly. “And…if you look at the bottom of a teacup, you can see what’s going to happen. Although not if you use a teabag. But Mum says that doesn’t taste as good anyway. Er.” She hovers for a moment in the aisle, and then plunks back down into her seat, looking uncertainly up at the professor.

Vincent Molbie smiles a little hearing the Hufflepuff’s explanation and waits poligihtly untill she is finished before speaking in his own very quiet voice. “Divination is the ability to predict the past, present and future be deciphering the different patterns all around us. Be it tea dregs in the bottom of a glass or even dice or dominos or even in some places a coin flip. Some tools are more effective than others and some seers do not have to use tools at all and have an ability to sense the future.” Vincent blushes just a bit and looks around before sitting down and saying nothing more.

Melvina Prichard agreed, the students were the most important part, and she was very content to simply sit quietly and watch for the rest of the lesson. To know someone, is to see how someone fulfills their passion; that is the measure to knowing peeking in to another heart and another soul. If it’s true that one’s passion were teaching, her little sit in would tell Melvina more about Professor Kensington than a hundred staff room conversations filled with idle small talk.. And it was an equally valuable chance to learn about her students, as well. To see what motivated them, to understand them. Bonnie’s polite acknowledgment, but heedless regard about Melvina presence spoke very highly over the divination professor, the headmistress thought. Melvina‘s usually sly, amused grin warmed in to something of a small smile of businesslike respect, ready to see and learn about the denizens of her school.

For a moment, Kelly looks slightly annoyed – how can people go around spoiling her fun by being present when it happened? Some people are just so inconsiderate. The note seems to puzzle her, however, to say the least and her eyes widen considerably as she scrawls in big letters, underlined several times, ‘EXCITED???’. Now, that doesn’t tally with her knowledge of the situation – which is limited to say the least, but still. She lowers her hand as she is called on, however, and offers, “And crystal-gazing, Professor, you can see what’s happening. That’s how you can use Divination for crime-fighting, Professor, because if you’re good you can see things happening as they happen, or before they happen, or after they happen…” She trails off a bit at the end, apparently realising she makes no sense, and diverts her attention back to Clementine, adding to the note on the paper, ‘how did you know what the note was about?’. The word ‘you’ is underlined.

Clementine Duncan smiles a little, though she does seem to develop a little more tact as far as their ‘chatter’ goes. She at least tries to pay more attention… She scribbles on the paper, ‘Well… surprised. It was in the middle of the commons – everybody was there! He said I put you up to it or something but it seems like he wanted to go I suppose.’ She also adds, ‘I don’t have a date.’ And ‘I don’t like your sister very much.’ Ehem.

Nodding slowly, Bonnie listens to the ideas that the students present. “Myself, I wouldn’t include dominoes and coin-flipping as intricate parts of Divination. They are much less consistent than the other methods you all have mentioned. I do think you’ve all got it about right, though. Divination is an art, and while all of you might have a passion for the art, I cannot guarantee that you will all have the gift. I will do everything in my power to help you find this gift within you, though. Let’s see, what else do we know about Divination?” The teacher pauses and glances around the room, seeing many very attentive students and one who, perhaps, is not paying full attention. “How about we hear from Miss Duncan next?”

After a moment of peering at this written correspondence, Kelly reaches over and offers a quick written response. ‘Everybody? Oh dear. He should know you didn’t put me up to it. But I guess he must have wanted to go, because he ended up saying yes.’ As Clementine is called on, however, she drops the quill in an effort to resume looking completely, one hundred per cent attentive. Good student. Yay.

Melvina Prichard shifts her gaze toward Clemintine with a slightly raised brows, her look of appreciation for the woman heading the class grows. It was a small thing, note-passing in class. But the world was made up of small things, and the how we handled the small things dictated how we would handle the large ones. Clasping her hands in her lap, and tapping her tangling toe against the air the headmistress watches.

“Ah, finding knut, pick it up, if it’s face up, all the day you’ll have good luck?” Felicity asks, her voice regraining some of it’s vigor, though still fairly soft. Honestly, she wasn’t sure she’d been heard at all. She turns her gaze toward Clementine as the hufflepuff’s singled out, widenning her eyes a little. After the headmistress greeting, she felt a little better; it was easier to laugh at yourself with someone else, though she still didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the woman so close by. Not after what happened in the common room with Kelly, Briony, Rawnie, and she. It was pretty clear what was going on, though. Passing notes with one teacher in a room was somewhat silly, with two.. it seemed kind of, well, dumb.

Vincent Molbie begins absently reading the chapter to himself as his young mind has a tendancey to whander. Though when Felicity speaks up about finding a knut and picking it up for luck he cannot help but have a bit of a laugh and the sillyness of it.

As her housemate is singled out, Katherine‘s smile fades away entirely, leaving only a worried frown. Clem might be sitting next to Kelly, but she _is_ still a Hufflepuff, and Katherine looks across the room towards her housemate with a mixture of concern and encouragement.

Clementine gulps as she’s called on, immediately feeling as though all time has slowed down. It’s no secret how absolutely horrified Professor Kensington has made her. BUSTED. “Um…” She tilts her head, twirling a braid between her fingers, pushing the note under Kelly’s book and breathing out a nervous giggle, “I-I don’t know much about Divination, but I read somewhere about people who can really see… wi’out anythin’. I-I ferget wha’ they’re called but they…” She moves a shaky hand in the direction of her now pale-white face, “Not many people can do it but there are a few in hist’ry that could… but they can… predict… the future… and stuff… without any help.” Her voice moves faster and faster as she goes off into a random rant of absolutely anything she remembers, growing higher and higher in pitch. When she finally does give up, she just cowers in her seat, covering her mouth and averting her eyes. Ugh. Kelly is a bad influence on her. If the Hufflepuff could simply stop her heart from beating… Now… Yes… Now would be a terrific time to figure that out. Not that she’s not dieing anyway.

“Thank you for your contribution, Miss Duncan,” Bonnie responds with a smile. “Good save.” Bonnie raises her eyebrows at the girl and turns to face the blackboard for a moment. “Now, you’re all aware of the most common types of Divination.” She flicks her wand and the chalk poises itself at the chalkboard once again. “We have crystal balls, tea leaves, astrology, and cards, which are easily the most popular of methods.” She pauses. “Well, take this down; you’ll need it later. You’ll find that taking notes is important in this class.” A pointed look goes to Kelly and Clementine. “Notes relating to the subject matter, that is.” She nods a moment and then continues. “Does anyone know the methods that are just as effective, but less popular?”

In response to the professor’s instructions, Katherine springs into action – she grabs her quill and hurriedly starts scribbling in her notebook. Eccentric diagrams accompany her enthusiastic notes – an oval crystal ball, a lopsided teacup, and a sketch of a tarot card spread that starts too far over on the page to fit all the way, so it starts to curve around. But Katherine‘s hand stays down this time – she has reached the end of her knowledge, it seems.

Vincent Molbie begins copying down what Professor Kensington is giving them. His scrawl is quick and quite tidey using up very little of his parchment and ink.

Kelly Pantall takes out a fresh piece of paper, one that is free of notes about the social, and writes some very detailed notes on the matter. *Balls, *Tea, *Stars, *Cards. See, brilliantly detailed notes. Then, her hand flies up in the air again, to answer this next question, though her expression indicates that it is entirely possible that she has absolutely no idea.

Clementine Duncan huffs out a long sigh of relief, smiling a little to herself and pulling out a new bit of paper. She jots down messy little notes about Divination, spelling it miraculously wrong even though the word seems to be just about everywhere she looks. She peaks over at Kelly’s notes, which are better then hers, and steals a few tidbits from them to put in her own.

Bonnie‘s eyebrows raise slightly as Kelly raises her hand, but the woman keeps all other traces of surprise from her face as she glances around the classroom. Nobody else? “Alright, what else is there, Miss Pantall?” Bonnie glances back as the chalk has continued writing, and is in fact not writing susinct notes, but every spoken word. She flicks her wand in its direction and the chalk falls to the floor. Waiting for Kelly’s answer, the woman stoops and picks up the chalk, examining it, then setting it back to the chalkboard, set to copy down the additional forms of Divination.

“Er… it’s a funny word I can’t pronounce. Um. Fren-oh-log-ee?” Kelly hesitates a moment, waving her hands vaguely. “Like, feeling the bumps on someone’s head so you know stuff about them. Like if they have a bumpy head here, they’re creative or something.” This really is more of a personality detector than divination, but you never know. “Oh! And, like, palm reading!” She looks quite proud of herself for knowing and being able to put words around this.

Katherine‘s quill has strayed to the margins, doodling little animals on the backs of her squashed tarot cards. And then something sparks in her mind – and her hand goes up. Her hand doesn’t waver, but the little Hufflepuff girl’s confidence is not complete – her irrepressible smile is, well, repressed, and she chews on her lower lip as she turns some heavy and difficult thought over in her mind.

Clementine Duncan raises her hand as well – obviously hesitant about offering another answer but rather set on at least making it up a little to the Professor. She didn’t even take points off or anything…

“Unfortunately, no Phrenology is not a form of Divination. While Muggles still seem to take it as a legitimate form of fortune telling, they are often entirely mistaken. Muggles are rarely gifted in this way, and even when they are do not know how to harness it properly.” The woman smiles. “However, palmistry is another form of Divination that is also rather popular in certain areas. Anyone else?” The woman glances around the classroom, as if to see if anyone has further input. “Miss Nichols, what have you to say on the subject? Miss Duncan, you can follow her answer.” The chalk at the board seems poised and ready to continue its list. “And before you keep looking, Mister Smits, you won’t find it in the first chapters of the guide.” Bonnie smiles at the boy and returns her attention to Katherine.

Vincent Molbie hurrys to copy down the facts as they come. Who would have guessed that the lumps on your head hold absoloutly no meaning at all? Vincent grins drawing a picture beside his notes of a Muggle franticley rubbing his head while looking at what seems to be a stock portfolio.

“Well…” Katherine begins, wriggling uncomfortably in her chair, “didn’t people – a long time ago, I mean? Didn’t they, well, kill animals?” She swallows hard, as her unhappy frown deepens. “And look at their insides and things? And tell the future from that? But I don’t think they do anymore – and I can’t see how killing animals would _help_ anything, even telling the future!” On the verge of saying more, Katherine suddenly catches herself, and closes her mouth abruptly, covering it with one chubby hand as if to hold back any more outbursts of words.

“Maybe that’s what Jack the Ripper was trying to do?” Kelly offers by way of explanation, though it is a quiet comment, as though it is said more to amuse herself than the rest of the room. She does, however, jot this addition down on her notes, taking not of the fact that ‘not phrenology’ and ‘palms’ and ‘organs’.

Clementine Duncan smiles, giggling and blushing, “Oh…” She sighs, motioning towards Katherine, “I was gonna say tha’ too! Entrails er somethin’ like tha’ it’s called?” She makes a disgusted face, “We’re not going to be doing that are we?” She pauses, staring at the Professor worriedly for a long moment before shaking her head, “Oh! If we were my da’ is a butcher… He could probably give us animal guts for free.” She smiles sweetly, writing some things down on her notes before hearing the professor’s reply. There are some eerily mixed messages in the girl’s reaction to cutting open animals to see the future…

“You’re both right on that one. A point each to Hufflepuff for coming up with such a method and sharing it with the class.” Bonnie turns to see that the chalk is still writing correctly, then turns back to face the class.”Other forms include the reading of bird entrails, as well as fire omens. Bird entrails reading is not a favorite with many, and we will not be spending much time on that. These methods are all ones that we will learn through the course of your years in Divination, be they three or be they five.” Bonnie swishes her wand again at the chalk and it stops writing and falls to the lip on the blackboard. “You’ll all likely enjoy fire omens far more than you wil enjoy bird entrails, but in order to have a well-rounded education of Divination, it is necessary to study.” Bonnie pauses, offering a generous smile to the occupants of the room. “Now, I’ll take questions from whoever has any. One at a time, please.”

Kelly Pantall looks rather obviously annoyed that though she has volunteered two answers to questions, she has not received any house points, so she too starts drawing little pictures. It’s a stick figure woman, with squiggly lines on top of her ‘torso’. What a beautiful artist’s impression of entrails. Then, she nudges Clementine again and writes another note. ‘You know him better than me, right?’

Under most circumstances, Katherine would be beaming, under a professor’s approval and friendly smile. But she looks no happier than she had before – if anything, she looks less comfortable and more apprehensive about the prospect of Divination class. “Do we really have to kill birds?” she blurts, before she can stop herself, and before she can raise her hand. She claps her hand over her mouth, and her round cheeks begin to redden with embarrassment.

Clementine Duncan beams, even going as far as pretending to pay attention for a few more minutes, ignoring Kelly’s note for about an entire second. She jots down a quick reply as if taking notes, ‘No! He just sits there all alone all the time!’ Not that she has room to talk, being the girl who throughout her first and second year had a tendency to run through the commons and up to her bed crying. She looks over to Katherine, frowning a little and adding to the note, ‘I don’t think Katherine is Jack the Ripper in case there were any doubts.’

Vincent Molbie makes a bit of a face at the very thought of using entrails of any sort. He whispers to a friend beside him. “Isn’t that kind of thing more for potions work? Gutting stuff I mean…” With a shiver Vincent adds the new information to his notes.

“No, dear, we won’t be. It’s a liability, and besides that, it’s rather messy and disgusting. We will be doing extensive research on the subject, however, and in order to complete that unit you will be expected to hand in several essays about the topic. That isn’t for several years, however, and you needn’t worry about it just yet, Miss Nichols.” Professor Kensington glances to Vincent as he speaks up. “I also view it as work for another subject of study, Mister Molbie. No one present need worry about having to interpret actual bird entrails while I am Professor of Divination here.” Bonnie looks around the room again. “More questions?”

Relief floods back into Katherine‘s face, and her cheerful smile beams forth again. She lets out a deep sigh, and relaxes back into her seat. “Thank you, Professor.”

‘Doubt it.’ Kelly scrawls in turn, glancing over at Katherine with a confused sort of expression. Then, after a moment, she adds, ‘Really? That’s sort of weird, isn’t it?’ She’s not in much of a position to pass judgement on whether or not people sit alone all the time, especially as she’s currently sitting next to probably the only person she knows who would come and sit next to her voluntarily.

‘I guess. I’m kindof used to it though. It’d be more weird if he came up and started talking to everyone. Do you like him?’ Clementine underlines the world like many many times before she raises her hand, waiting to be call on patiently. She’s actually fairly confident now. She’s already been humiliated. She’s sitting next to Kelly. And she got one point.

Vincent Molbie blushes just slightly as the Professor overheard his question. “Right… sorry.” He says quickly and pretends to read the chapter again not wanting to embaress himself any further than he has allready.

‘No, Clementine.’ Kelly writes in response, looking at the other girl and rolling her eyes pointedly. ‘I asked him to the social to prove exactly how little I like him.’ The word little is also underlined several times, and just to prove her point, she draws another little face on the piece of paper, but this one has narrowed eyebrows and a frown.

“Well, if there are no more questions, then I think we’ve had a good introduction for the class. As homework, I would like you all to read the first two chapters of The Guide as well as the first chapter of Unfogging the Future. Please write me fifteen inches in summary of these three chapters to be turned in next class.” Bonnie sets her wand down on the table. “If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to stay after and ask them. I will stay here for the express purpose of clearing up any confusion. Otherwise, I will see you on Thursday, and please be careful descending the ladder.” A nod and a smile is given to everyone before she adds, “Class dismissed.”

Clementine Duncan jots down her little reply, ‘Oh good. Because I’m pretty sure he just said yes to spite you I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.’ She pouts as she’s not called on, moving back down her raised hand with a sigh and turning to Kelly. “Did you pick out what you’re wearing ye’ an’ all tha’?” She asks this idly while she collects herself, stuffing the notes taken today into her book and thinking about how frizzing her hair is going to be when it dries.

Vincent Molbie smiles and puts his parchments in his book after writing out the homework assignment. “Peice of cake.” He comments to a friend as he walks toward a hanger to retreive his bag. “Up for a game of exploding snap after we finish?” With that the Slytherin decends the ladder to hurry off to his next class before this maze of a castle gets him lost.

Kelly Pantall looks down at the paper with a slightly hurt expression, then back up at Clementine, locking away the sudden hurt and offering a bright smile in response. “Well, I dunno. I don’t actually have any dress robes, but I wrote mother to send me some. I don’t know if she will, though, I’ll probably have to just brush up my normal school robes.” She hesitates for a moment, almost as if she’s on the verge of asking something, a hint of her despondency returning, then shakes her head as if to shake water from her ears, and grabs at the personal notes, tearing them up in her hands. “I don’t want anyone else reading it.” She explains.

Clementine Duncan sighs, looking as Kelly turns away, easily catching the little turn away expression. “But I think he was lieing. I think he loves you and wants to marry you and have lots of babies. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said yes at all.” She half teases, walk-skipping away to climb down the ladder.

If nothing else, Kelly seems to feel that remark deserves a good thump in the head, and forgets all about the notes she was tearing up, shoving the tattered remains in her pocket and hightailing it after Clementine. “Clementine! DON’T say things like that! People will hear you and then everyone will know and that… that would be bad.” I mean, never mind all the people she’ll tell straight-up and the fact that half of Hufflepuff already knows.

Clementine Duncan just offers her same old infectious cackle and continues on.

With that bizarre little comment, Kelly follows Clementine down the ladder, muttering all sorts of mild threats about it.

It takes a while for Katherine to assemble all of her books and parchments and quills and candy wrappers, and toss them into her satchel – most of the other students are gone by the time she finishes. But there are still a few – _not_ Kelly, and by extension, not Clementine – with whom Katherine can dawdle and chat as they wait to descend the ladder, back to the rest of the castle.

Felicity Wexler is the last to gather up her things, having stayed quiet most of the class. She did, however take rather good notes, for personal reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with love readings. Well, maybe some, anyway. Working her way from the class, she passes a glance back to Professor Kensington and Professor Prichard, before exhaling a small sigh an climbing out with the bag and cloak she had hung up before.

Melvina Prichard waits for all the students to depart before slipping from the chair she’d taken, smoothing out her robes, and replacing the wide-brimmed hat she’d respectfully removed earlier back on to her head. After adjusting herself properly, so that she feels properly garbed again, she starts toward Bonnie with a pleased, but decidedly more businesslike expression. More serious, perhaps, that the face she enjoys putting on for students. Both honest aspects of her personality, but each for it’s specific time and place. “Very nice lesson, professor. Thank you for allowing me to sit in on it.”

“The pleasure was mine, Professor Prichard,” Bonnie assures the headmistress, stepping behind her desk to reorganize things. She opens a drawer and files papers into it, taking another stack out. “The lessons will get more interesting in the future, I’m sure. This was merely an introduction, as I’m sure many of these students think rather poorly of Divination as a subject.” The woman’s laugh rings out and she looks up, now organized for her next class. “It went rather well for the first class, I think.” Bonnie smiles up at her ‘boss’ and closes the drawer.

“Indeed,” Melvina concurs, giving a wry sort of grin as she cants her head slightly. “And if I may say, you handled the note situation with Miss Duncan beautifully. I’ve looking very much forward to working with you.” If nothing else (and that was hardly a problem, as she had plenty of positive things to say about Bonnie after one simple course), Melvina was certain that her Professor of Divination was passionate and serious about her work. Naturally, her work history pointed toward that; Bonnie clearly had many years not only mastering her trade, but studying the theory and the practical implications, but she seemed determined to approach the course from the concept of “imperfect, but useful science”. At least compared to the divination master Melvina herself had when she was in school (an old coot who told riddles and three tarot cards at people), Bonnie seemed to have a solid head on her shoulders. Yes, Melvina liked her. Melvina liked her very much. “Is there anything I can do to help you get settled in? Any supplies or requests?”

“You know, I think I’m fairly well settled. I’m so glad I thought to purchase all of these decorations, though. The past professor of Divination seems to have had rather poor taste in decor.” She pauses as she looks about the classroom. “This is much more cozy, in my opinion.” Bonnie, glancing at a pocketwatch she has stowed in her pocket looks the Headmistress in the eye. “You really ought to join us when Professor Fallon and I collaborate during the Astrology unit for Fifth years. That should prove a fascinating class.” The woman steps towards the door slightly. “Fancy some tea?” Bonnie suggests, her arm pointing towards the door, as if she’s suggesting a trip to the staff room.

Melvina Prichard laughs softly, before politely declining the tea. “I’d not made it up here before you redcorated, I’m afraid, but if it was anything like I remember from being a student, than I would say terrible taste was a small understatement. And no, thank you, dear, but I really must decline. To late in the day for me, afraid. If I have a sip now, I’ll not be able to sleep.” Her genuine, thankful smile does show that offer is appreciated it, though. “And if neighter Professor Fallon or yourself mind, I would love to attend.” Her arms clasp behind her in the way they tend to do, and she grins a little. “I really must be going, but I do have to say, thank you again for the lesson. Introduction or not, I believe that I learned more about divination today thay I ever did before I graduated. And the nostalgia was a pleasant gift, as well. Professor.”

“Alright then, I’ll see you at supper then,” the woman tells the Headmistress with a smile. “I hope your other sit-ins go as well as this one appears to have gone. This looks to be a promising year.” Bonnie sighs happily, her own nostalgia seeming to back up on her again. How many hours the woman had spent in this room during her stay at the school… “I shall see you again soon, and go to get myself a cup of tea. You’ll be alright descending the ladder, won’t you?” Bonnie does not look entirely concerned about this, given that Melvina is not exactly decrepit, but asks out of consideration nevertheless.

“My dear woman,” Melvina gasps in clearly mock astonishment. “Whatever are you suggesting?” Her great grin following, though, seems gentle enough. “I’ll be fine, dear. Thank you, though. At dinner then.” And with that, Melvina makes her way from the tower, feeling that it had been a pretty good day.

“At dinner,” Bonnie answers with a laugh and follows the woman as she descends from the tower, for her own part heading to the staff room for a spot of tea that she feels is necessary. First class: Successful. Bonnie goes to the staff room with high hopes for the year ahead.