Throwdown of the Century

The boy sounded pretty reasonable when he replied. Didn't laugh at her for her rambling either. When he mentioned Finch, Rika colored up slightly, but he actually congratulated her. Rika beamed. This boy had just skyrocketed up her 'Witches and Wizards Who I Do Not Detest' list. "N..Nice to meet you too."

Then he put out his hand, and Rika twitched. He had just been pushed three places down. What to do...what to do.....a girl approached him from behind, and he whirled around, handshake forgotten. She heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe having a pathetic reputation back at home wasn't such a bad thing, people tended to avoid physical contact with her, something she was all too eager to encourage. Well, now that the whole warning portion was done, she was free to leave.

"Stay back, chick." The boy with definitely bleached hair, and obnoxiously blowing bubbles with pink gum standing at the door like a guard, chewed out in the horrible imitation of an American accent. "Henri says no one's to leave the party till she wants."

Henri? Oh of course......Rika clenched her fists hard enough to leave half-moon impressions on her palms with her nails. She threw a glance back, there was Finch gyrating to the beat, in the thick of it all. In later, more sober moments, she would blame her poor decision on the sheer sight of the she-demon's smirking face. The organiser, Brian, materialised out of the crowd with a friendly-looking glass, and she glugged it down.

Whoa. It hit her like an axehammer, right at the point between her eyebrows. Lightweight, should've guessed. mourned Brenda, somewhere at the back of her head. Rika shook the aforementioned part of her body rapidly. She was...fine. Stable. As long as she didn't touch another glass.

But since she was stuck here anyway.......Rika caught Finch's eye, briefly. Time to achieve the results of her blackmail. Her lips moved, mouthing the sentence: Apology. Now. She didn't need to mime the rest of it: or else.....

Henri turned and saw that her attention was being called for. She turned and saw Erika looking straight at her, cuing her to begin the apology. She looked about and spotted a table that only had a few appetizers on it. She looked to her group and nodded - she had been prepared for this.

She went and whispered something to one of the girls and the girl began to spread it among the group. Henri turned and approached the table, half of her group following. She clambered up onto the table and flicked her wand. With the annoying noise of mechanical feedback, the music stopped.

"Excuse me," she said, her voice carrying across the room. "Hello, everyone. You probably know me - I'm Henri Finch. During the last potions class, I did something bad. I messed with Erika Dixon's potion and it ended up exploding. I didn't realize it would explode - I was just upset with her and took the knotgrass. And I'm truly sorry I was so immature."

She suddenly choked on her words, and reached a hand up to her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just... Erika makes me feel a little- threatened. She's always muttering under her breath - I'm almost certain they are insults and threats."

Her group responded accordingly, turning to people near them and saying things such as, "I've heard her mutter - that's so right."

Henri gulped. "I'm sorry - this isn't the time or the place. I just haven't felt very safe. And now, I've messed up and really hurt things. Erika, I know you demanded that I apologize, and I'm sorry I've said more! I'm just so tired of all of the bullying. Can't we be friends?"

Her group began muttered, stirring mutiny. The part of her group that had followed her would prevent Erika from charging her. Henri swallowed again, looking sincerely frightened. "I'm sorry." She slid off of the table.

((Henri's posse is among everyone. Please feel free to say they turned and muttered to your character!!! And, by feel free, just say they did. XD ))

Hallie stared in Brian's direction, it appeared he'd been engrossed in a conversation with Molly Weasley and the crazy girl that had punched Henri Finch in the face for causing her cauldron to explode - of which Hallie had taken responsibility for before smashing her vial of ruined potion and storming out of the room. Spotting a table full of drinks, some which appeared to be non-alcoholic, Hallie rose from her bean bag, 'I'll be back in a minute. Pumpkin Juice.' She called to her friends, although a pair of girls, who had been dancing around Henri blocked her path.

'Oh my gosh, did you hear what Erika has been saying?' The first said. 'Erika?' She asked, unaware that the Ravenclaw who rivaled Henri went by the name Erika.
'Yeah that crazy girl. Oh my gosh she's been saying THE most awful things about Henri.'

'Well, I can't say I'm surprised after what happened in potions, even though Henri framed me for it.' Hallie retorted without a care in the world as she moved to edge between the two younger girls and head over to collect a glass of pumpkin juice.

'Oh I k-know, it's awful that it seemed that way but, but you know, well Henri really was grateful and she is going to make up for it pretty soon.' One of them replied after being taken off guard by Hallie's involvement in the explosion event in potions. Before Hallie could reply however, Henrietta Finch had silenced the music and clambered onto a table of appetizers making a public apology. Well at least everyone knew it wasn't Hallie who was a bully. Perhaps those in the lesson had a greater understanding of why she'd stormed out.

Hallie smirked as the Ravenclaw brought on the tears, well rehearsed tears. Although a part of her wanted to believe that she really had been hurt by Erika, especially if it would be something to ruin her ego. But Henri couldn't really cry about being bullied, it wasn't like she was the sweetest strawberry in the punnet.

The babble of hushed voices, some sounding surprised, buzzed around the room at the end of Henri's speech. She was popular and this dramatic act was fuel in the flames of gossip. 'Now can you let me past?' Hallie grinned, amused at what had taken place.

One of the girls attempted to engage in conversation but Hallie simply raised a hand, her lip curling even more at the petty behavior that was beneath the seventh year. Now, time for that pumpkin juice. The T-Total thought to herself as she reached the drinks table not too far from Brian. Hopefully he'd notice her again, perhaps come over, attempt to engage in conversation. Whatever he did she had a plan.

Vivianna had spent the last few minutes floating around the edge of the crowd. The teenager was in her element, easily blending into the background, and surveying others. Just a moment or two prior, the girl had gone over to the drinks table, searching for something to simply carry around in her hand. Just as she was about to grab a drink, however, the Slytherin had caught an eyeful of a bright red shirt, and was suddenly reminded of a conversation she'd had with Oliver Krum not too long before. Remembering what the male had been drinking, firewhiskey with Sugar, the teenager took back her hand so fast, her arm appeared to be nothing more than a blur.

Turning on her heel, the female stormed off back to her corner, every step oozing with irritation. The girl couldn't be sure that there was anything in the drinks, but she couldn't be sure that there wasn't. Glancing around, she didn't see either of the two drug-distributors anywhere, but that didn't mean someone else couldn't have done it. Bloody hell, couldn't a girl get buzzed without having to worry about ingesting drugs these days?

The witch automatically felt for the little bag of drugs in her left pocket, and immediately felt disgusted with herself for financially supporting the makers. Back in her shadowed corner, Vivianna raised an eyebrow at the unexpected sight of Erika downing a glass of what looked like wine. Before she could even fully react to the sight, Henri cut the music and climbed onto of a refreshments table.

For the first few sentences of the Ravenclaw's speech, the OWL student found herself very confused. It was not at all like Henri to apologize, so what was going on? Was this some sort of distraction? Quickly scanning the crowd, the girl became even more confused, as every pair of eyes in the vicinity was glued to the girl on the table. When Henri started with the fake waterworks, everything became clear once more. With a clenched jaw, Vivianna took a few steps forwards for a better viewpoint. There was something about what Henri was doing that the Slytherin just hated. Perhaps it was a bit hypocritical of her, considering that the teenager herself was no stranger to lies, deception, and blackmail. But something about what Henri was doing was just dirty, even but Vivianna's own muddy standards.

One hand reaching into the under-layer of her hair, the witch pulled violently on a strand. A blue strand, a strand that Henri herself had died for her. The student shut her eyes for a brief moment at the onslaught of emotions hitting her. How could one little girl be so amusing and fun, and yet so terrible?

Biting the inside of her mouth and taking another step forwards, Vivianna found herself at the edge of a group of whispering students. One of the girls must have noticed her presence, as the sixth year Gryffindor soon turned to the Slytherin and said in a whiny voice, "it's true you know, crazy Dixy Dixon is always muttering things, and always gets real angry whenever Henri's around."

Refusing to even dignify the other girl's words with a response, the witch just turned her head, and walked away.

She remembered Titanic. The lined face of the architect, as he watched his ship crumble helplessly. It would be adequate to say that she felt pretty much the same way.

As Finch 'cried', the buzz started. The whispers, the glares, the contemptuous looks. Rika resisted the mad urge to laugh. God, was everyone really that stupid? Couldn't they see? Couldn't see the smirk behind those crocodile tears.....she, a bully? This, this was what she deserved for trying to blackmail someone like Finch. She wanted to....to...

Break something? Her face? You did that last time. What's the point?

An overwhelming sense of weariness. She was so....tired of all this....she walked slowly, deliberately towards Finch. A perfumed flunky blocked her way. Her voice came out ridiculously dead-pan, "I'm unhinged and a bully. You do not wish me to give you a hangnail." The girl fled. Rika came to a stop in front of Finch. She tried in vain to summon up some anger. All that came out was a calm, world-weary voice that had no right to belong to a fifteen-year old.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for cooperating with you and acting like an immature five-year old. You win, I lose. Now everyone thinks I'm a batty, psychotic bully. Just like back at home." Her voice cracked on the last word. "If your world really revolves around what people think about you, then I'm sorry for punching you. You're sad enough as it is. If anyone asks, I'll confirm what you said. You've got your popularity now. Happy?"

She turned and walked. There was a blonde there, Gryffindor if she wasn't mistaken. She wasn't glaring, so Rika took a place beside her. And even as she downed another glass of wine, no one could blame her.

Molly listened as Brian tried to defend himself to her. He was sorry, he thought it was the only way she would come, the usual excuses. He was right, she wouldn't have come if he had invited her to a party. She wasn't a party girl, she got somewhat intimidated in big groups of people and tended to shy to the edge of the room, not really talking to anyone.

Before she could say anything, a group of people burst into the room. Molly turned, as did Brian, to see a group of girls come in. Molly recognized Henri and her friends. She'd never spoken to Henri, but she had heard about her and her friends, not people that Molly particularly wanted to talk to much.#

Then Brian just told her to 'have fun'. Didn't he understand that big parties like this weren't fun for her? She just felt uncomfortable, she didn't feel like she fitted in. Then he mentioned something about not drinking the punch. This worried her even more, wanting to get out of this place.

"Bye Brian." she simply said, heading towards the door. She wanted her pet and her bed and nothing else right now. As she got to the door, some guys that Henri had brought in were blocking it, refusing to let her past. Annoyed and frustrated, she turned and leant against one of the walls, wishing she could just sit down and forget about this party. As she thought this, a chair with a pile of books on appeared next to her. She sat down, flicked through the books and picked one. It was some novel about witches many years ago, she wasn't usually a massive reader, but it beat anything else in the room.

Then someone started talking over everyone else. Looking up, Molly saw it was Henri. It started out as an apology, but it turned into more of an attack of another girl, Erika. Molly didn't know Erika, only knew that she was another fifth year. Trying to ignore everyone B**** about them, she turned to her book.

One of Henri's followers then came over to her and was going on about Erika and how Molly should be 'up and partying' and 'having some fun', not 'sitting alone like a loser'. Not that that encouraged Molly to get up, thinking everyone else saw her as a loser.

"I'm not here by choice, ok. That idiot Brian lied to me and now I'm stuck here because your idiot friend has put those stupid guards by the door and won't let me leave. So just leave me alone." Molly bursted out, just wanting some peace.

[[OOC: Random NPC, assuming Henri has many followers. Or friends. Whatever you call them :p. And anyone feel free to annoy Molly, force her to stay, try and persuade her to have fun. She's innocent/naive and never been to a party before, so play nice! Or not...]]

((Yes, feel free to NPC her gang! That's why they are there =D ))

Henri could hear the story she had planted begin to ripple throughout the crowd of hormonal, gossip-y teenagers. She watched with pleasure, though her face still held the almost sniveling expression of nerves and fear. She played the part well, and Erika's intense expression was doing nothing for her.

Erika now began her approach and Henri minutely squared her shoulders in preparation. The muscle around her began to tighten their flanks around her. Celeste was the one who tried to turn Erika away, but failed. Henri's eyes flashed - Celeste would be given her punishment in due time for her cowardice.

Whatever Henri expected, Erika disappointed a million times over. Visible shock registered on her face; the muscles so practiced in masking emotion were now slack and out of her control. This would surely make any onlookers believe that Erika had threatened or insulted her, but Henri was no longer thinking of even that. Erika's words penetrated her to the core.

She swallowed. She could not consider this any longer. She quickly turned away and looked about the room, looking for a bathroom. "Damn it, I need- I need - damn it!" She found herself unable to express herself suddenly. As she lamented her position, a door appeared and she stalked towards it. Her group moved to follow and she spun around. "F*ck off!"

She pushed her way into the room, finding a small sink and mirror. She locked the door and immediately turned, punching the wood. She gasped for breath and stumbled to turn on the water, patting water onto her cheeks. Her hands shook as she withdrew a lighter and a cigarette from her pocket. She lit it and brought it shakily to her lips, trying to gain some steady ground.

Hallie grasped one of the goblets that were shimmering in rows then reached for the jug of pumpkin juice, pouring herself a glass. She went to take a sip of the refreshing liquid but stopped... Erika Dixon had swept across the room, away from Henri Finch, and was looking dazed, lost in thought. Hurt.

Jeez. Hallie thought as Erika downed her wine. Perhaps offering her the glass of pumpkin juice in her hand as she intended wasn't the best of ideas. The Gryffindor took a step towards the girl who'd punched Henri. The girl who had been framed. Hallie knew the truth before. She'd saw Henri summon the knotgrass and place it in front of herself. Despite this a part of her wanted to believe Erika had bullied her, why else would she summon the knotgrass for no reason? Although the expression that Erika had on her face said different, it was as though she'd given up a fight. Dropped her defenses completely.

Hallie glanced around the room. Henri had vanished somewhere, or maybe she was surrounded by her followers. She wanted to say something to Henri, really get the truth out of her. Something wasn't right about the whole situation and Erika seemed too out-of-touch to talk. 'Umm. Would you like to take a seat with me?' Hallie asked, gesturing at an empty booth with blue drapes and bean bags. A Ravenclaw booth... So what if she wasn't a Ravenclaw, like the room would stop her when it gave it's user it's very wishes.

(OOC: 'Celeste would be given her punishment in due time for her cowardice.' .... Sounds like an upcoming Voldemort! Haha)

Vivianna watched as Erika stormed up to Henri. The Slytherin tensed her muscles, mentally preparing for another potions class-like incident. The wronged Raven didn't throw a punch however, but delivered this blow in what appeared to be many powerful words.

She'd never seen Henri speechless before. Honestly, the redhead wasn't even sure that such a thing was possible. But Henri sure was speechless now. The Slytherin watched as Henri flailed for a moment, before snapping at her cronies and storming towards a newly-appeared door on the wall.

Finally turning her eyes away from the door everyone in the room seemed to be avoiding, Vivianna scanned for Erika. It didn't take long to find her, but it appeared that someone else had reached the other girl first. Hallie Cooper, well, at least Vivianna didn't have to worry about Erika getting beaten up or something.

Letting out a sigh, the witch walked over to one of the many drinks tables. Picking up two glasses of what looked like firewhiskey, the witch poured almost the entire contents of one into a discarded glass nearby, making it look like she'd drunk most of the contents. Grabbing the two glasses, Vivianna briskly walked towards the door being avoided like the plague. Finding the door locked, the teenager shuffled the glasses to pulled out her wand, and promptly fixed that little problem with a simple first-year spell. Turning the handle, slipping to the small room, and shutting the door behind her, Vivianna turned to Henri.

"You look like you could use this," the half-blood said, extending the full glass of alcohol towards Henri. If the redhead couldn't talk to Erika, she was sure as hell talking to Finch.

Henri heard the lock of the door click and the door was pulled open, briefly shining the light of the party into the dimly lit room, which was more of a broom closet than anything else, if she were being frank. She did not look up to see who it was, but recognized the voice as belonging to one Vivianna Varnes.

The Slytherin pushed a class of Firewhiskey into her line of vision and Henri took it from her without hesitation. She exhaled a breath of smoke and took the cigarette from her lips, holding it loosely between her fingers. In one fluid motion, she threw back the contents of the glass she held in her other hand, swallowing it down in one magnificent gulp. Her throat burned and her eyes watered, but she swallowed it down, saying nothing. What could she say?