The Yule Ball

" 'Kay we can go look for Sora. But first we should go to the commonroom and get changed." Hitame said smiling." You look funny all soaked though, you can barely walk right!" Hitame laughed." Oh and just so you know i don't mean it in a bad way.I' m just joking around." Hitame clarified so Xemnas didn't think she was trying to be mean." Where do you think Sora is anyways?"

Victoire Weasley wrote:((Posting as Louis))

Lucy smiled as Louis took a seat beside and gave her some punch. "Thankyou Louis."said Lucy kissing his cheek. As he asked what she was doing she shrugged. "Oh nothing much really, just watching couple dancing and waiting for you."said Lucy softly. "You look sharp and handsome as always."said Lucy smiling. Lucy looked at herself and frowned for there were other girls who looked prettier then her. Lucy wondered if her best friend Leslie was coming or not seeing how she didn't have a date.

Tapping her foot to the beat she started humming the song softly to herself and took a sip of her punch Louis gave her. Lucy loved dances and nothing would make her happier then being close to Louis. She was glad they were back together again she really missed being with him and around him.

Louis looked at her. He got up. "So wanna dance or are we gonna sit." He said hearing the music waiting for Luxy to answer. Louis waited for her and saw other people dancing. It looked really fun. And Louis had been practicing. He saw a couple of people he knew. He didnt wait and pulled her up starting to dance with her. As he remebered. From last Yule ball. Step left, step right and the male leads. He looked at her. "Come on dance." He said dancing some more.

Lucy laughed. "I thought you'll necer ask."said Lucy softly as he lead her off to the dance floor. As they started dancing Lucy smiled. "Well, well, aren't you a good dancer Mr. Weasley?"Lucy asked him smiling. Lucy was so happy to be close to him after being away from him so long she didn't want it to end. As she looked into his eyes she smiled. "I love Louis Weasley."said Lucy softly. Lucy loved him with all her heart and didn't want to lose him for nothing not even life itself.

Julia stood in her place watching the champions dance, slowly taking sips of her punch. She was grtting more nervous than she was before. Not only because she had Scorpius as a date, but also because she got a room at the Three Broomsticks; assuming she would be drunk, anyways. It took her some time to realize that the ice queen herself, Suzannah, was standing beside her. Julia turned to listen to whatever trash the girl had to get out of her system. However, there was no way that she would let the drama seeker ruin her night. The only thing that Julia could make out of her words was something about not having a date; she simply had to respond to that. "Oh, really? Why don't you ask your brother who is date is for the night then come talk to me." Before Suz could reply, Julia heard a familiar voice come from behind them. She could immediately tell who it was as soon as the deep velvety sound filled her ears. Julia turned around and saw who she was looking for, Scorpius was sending Suzannah away; and just in time, because Julia got the final insult. "Aw, thank you! And you look... incredible." He actually looked more than incredible, but that was always the expectation for him. At that moment, Julia's anxiety seemed to melt away, and she couldn't wait to go back to her room.

Julia wrapped her arms around Scorpius in a hug, and held it for longer than usual. As she pulled back, she gave him a wide smile, and clung her left arm around his right. She thought of what they would do when they got to the Three Broomsticks, though she had previously already thought of the possibilities. She had no "wrong" intentions, she would never try that with Scorpius, unless they both agreed upon it. Though she did intend on telling him how she really felt toward him. She hoped that her plan wouldn't backfire; she didn't want to ruin her friendship with him if he had rejected her, but she also deeply wanted to escape the friendship hold she had on him and turn it into something more. But she was prepared for whatever answer he had, be they bad or good.

She tried not to worry, so they could have a good time together, with a little help of vodka and firewhiskey. While she was waiting for her date, Julia had slipped some of her favorite vodka into her punch, and was already starting to feel a little tipsy; she had always been light weight. "So, Scorp, what should we do now?" Julia smiled and leaned against his arm, waiting for his reply.

This ball, whatever it was, was a bloody nuisance. Luckily, he was the Headmaster with a Limp and he could easily avoid such meaningless gatherings. But, he had to greet them all, didn't he? He put his ceremonial robes (for the first time since he came here) above his suit and limped down from his office through the staff halls into the Great Hall. As expected, it was full of people, some of whom he had know, some of whom he had never seen before and the rest were just kids. He greeted McCoy, who was mingling around and keeping an eye on all of them, and limped, silently to the front of the desk... at least where it should have been. He used Sonorus on his vocal chords and then coughed. This should be over rather quickly.

''Hear ye! Hear ye! The king of United... Oh no, wait... wrong picture! The Yule Ball, right? Ah yes! Now, good evening to you all, I am, as you may or may not know, Edgar A. Doyle, the current Headmaster of Hogwarts and the host of this event. I should welcome you all and hold a speech about things such as friendship, unity and all that Jabberwocky. But, of course, you shan't see that happen! Now, you are all here to dance so I am not going to take much of your time. Greetings to all of my colleagues and thanks to those who replaced me being here. To a certain Lithuanian guy trying to get into a certain French gal's pants, good luck. Remember, the punch is on the right. I also thought this was a private thing, which makes me wonder why we are having some older people here? This isn't some twisted Matrix-something plot, is it? Well, nothing a good night's sleep won't take care of. As per the students, honestly, I wish you all a very good ball, dance, chat or just sit on a chair, whatever pleases you because this is, truly, your night! This is probably the nicest thing I have said to a student. Don't drink much because, I won't be the one to tell your parents you are getting a baby boy or a baby girl... my office is closed from now on for your parents... Elldir, that Ministry freak will, probably, take care of that. He is a better people's person. Now, as for you all, I wish to you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And that would be all... I exit, stage right!'', he said.

He looked at them once more and then turned around, limping back to his office.

(Yes, I know it is a tad late... but still :-D)

''Inspiring, as usual'', Arthur thought to himself after Doyle had exited through the Staff Entrance. He was just about to wave back to Amelia when he noticed his mentor enter, which is why he stopped. As a consequence, he managed to lose her among the crowd, which is why he had to climb on his toes to locate her.

This was a very intense moment for him. Not because he had to push his way through the corpses of students which were either dancing or just blocking his way. He was nervous in such moments, but still, he had to do it. He had to lose his tension sometime and these social gatherings were, probably, the best way to do so. There were so many people that, although it was a crowd, no one would notice you.

He pushed his way through the dresses and suits, through the alcohol filled glasses and small bits of food, through jewelry and make up, in order to arrive next to Amelia. She was lovely as usual, that certain beauty of hers, distant to the majority, but magical and better exactly because of that, was, even now, amazing and bewitching. Her dress was simple, but beautiful, fitting her perfectly. That pale color suited her perfectly.

He smiled at her and bowed slightly, as he had the habit of doing when expressing respect towards someone. ''Hi, Amelia'', he said, quietly. The tension was beginning to take control. He took a deep breath. ''Uhm... how are you? I am a tad late, but I presume I haven't missed much? And sorry for not answering, I had to listen to Doyle's inspiring speech'', he said.

(Sorry for being so late... sorry :-( )

In an effort to distract herself from her own thoughts, Amelia had looked to Peter, standing next to her and doing much of the same that she had been doing: scanning the crowd, fidgeting slightly. But he wasn’t looking at her at the moment, and Amelia could think of nothing to say to him. Throughout their few meetings, Amelia had relied on Peter to find topics to talk about, so when she was pressed for one now that would draw his attention, she blanked.

A few seconds into her mental beratement of her inability to think of anything to say, the headmaster took to the stage and the music stopped temporarily to allow him to speak. He spoke with his usual mixture of sarcasm, criticism, and relatively unimportant tangents, but at least he was quick about it. Amelia hadn’t spoken to the headmaster at all, nor had she seen him since their game of chess in his office. Classes had yet to resume for the near year, so she hadn’t been forced to attend his class, but it was only a matter of time before she was back in the dungeons and his vicinity.

The headmaster’s speech was brief, for which the general audience seemed pleased as the music and dancing resumed. A few seconds later, Amelia felt a new presence beside her, and turned to see Arthur bowing slightly, his jacket tightening around his shoulders as he made this slightly outdated gesture, though it seemed to fit his persona. Arthur had always seemed to Amelia as though he belonged in an earlier century, rather than the one he had been born into.

“Hello Arthur,” Amelia replied in greeting the older boy, feeling slightly pressed for words as she always did when Arthur was around. He had always seemed more interested in being around her than she was about being around him, and although they had agreed a few weeks ago to make an attempt at friendship, Amelia hadn’t seen that change overly much. It wasn’t that she disliked him with the same fervor she had in the passed – that seemed to have dissipated with time and distance – but she still felt awkward around him, like there was some sort of pressure he was putting on her that she couldn’t quite interpret.

“No, no, nothing overly important,” Amelia hastily answered Arthur’s question about what he may have missed, “Just the usual.”

Amelia couldn’t tell if Arthur’s comment about Doyle’s speech being inspiring was meant to be honest or sarcastic, but given the way the boy revered his mentor, Amelia thought it best not to give her opinion that she hadn’t been particularly moved by anything the headmaster had said. Instead, Amelia looked between the boy with whom she had been standing up to this point and the new arrival, realizing introductions were in order.

“And this is Peter,” Amelia said, placing her hand on the crook of Peter’s elbow to let him know she was speaking to him, trying to include him in the conversation to take some of the pressure off of herself, “He is a Beauxbatons student here for the tournament. Peter, this is Arthur. He is a recent graduate of Hogwarts.”

((Sorry to bother, however could someone catch me up on what happened with Blaire and Matt?))

''Nice to meet you lad'', Arthur said nodding. He had smiled, although he was sure it did seem rather strange. He was not good at meeting people, one of the flaws he had, but he did not know how to change it, he had not idea what to do about it. He looked around the crowd, examining what people had been doing.

All was the same. Each and every year, a ball or a party would be the same, nothing new or unexpected would happen. The fact that the Muggle sociologist Max Weber had been right with his presumption that all things would be predictable was rather disappointing. Some people stood up... Amelia was one of them, he also liked to consider himself as one of them, but that was for others to judge, but the majority was the same... grey and faceless. Their visages are blank and identical... like clones. Pondering, he remembered he was in the presence of people and quickly turned to Amelia.

She had, truly, been wonderful in that dress. ''Umm... so, how's it been? School and all?'', he asked. That was a silly question to ask... but he wasn't good with people, as he had said many times before, and this was the first thing that came to him. It was a silly question... but it could be good for starters.

Peter must have been distracted when Amelia made her introduction, because he didn’t immediately respond to her touch, nor to Arthur’s somewhat old fashioned response, which just so happened to include the word “lad”. Still, Amelia hesitated, waiting for Peter to step in and take over the conversation with his easy comedy, lessening the tension of the situation with relative ease. At least that was what Amelia was hoping for.

When it didn’t come, the three of them were left standing in awkward silence, Arthur surveying the other people around them, Amelia fidgeting and running her fingers over each other, looking down at them as though the words she needed to keep the conversation going would be written across her knuckles. As one might have guessed, she found nothing written there, and instead waited in restless silence until Arthur came up with something to say. It wasn’t anything profound, but at least it was something she could grab hold of to stay afloat in this social situation.

“School has been fine,” Amelia replied, perhaps showing her gratitude to have found something to say a bit too much, because her response came hastily, “End of term exams are nearly finished, and I feel confident in my work. Charms was one of the most difficult exams I’ve taken to date, but nonetheless I felt it served as an adequate assessment of skill.”

Is it time to go yet? Amelia’s subconscious butted in, bored with this line of conversation and not exactly keen on being stuck in such a social situation that made Amelia more stressed than any exam.

I haven’t put in my time yet, Amelia reminded herself, looking up to the large clock on the wall that showed she would have to endure at least 30 more minutes before she could reasonably excuse herself.

“Anything interesting at the apothecary?” Amelia asked Arthur after checking to see if Peter’s attention had returned to them yet. She would have preferred to bring him into the conversation – she was still hoping to use him as an avoidance tactic for having to talk – but once again she couldn’t be that lucky.

We'll be closing the Yule Ball soon as it is nearly 15 days overdue. You have one more day to post here.