Having Such A Good Time

The lights on the ceiling of the Zabini mansion were glistening as though they were actually chandeliers, though Apollo considered the possibility that he was romanticizing it. Blaise had to approve, otherwise his attempt at showing his father that things were still going to work out would fall apart. Apollo was straying too far from the path that his father had set for him, and if hosting get-togethers like this one would prove that he was still interested, that's what he would do. Christian had taken ages to return from helping Daphne pick up things for the party, but eventually everything had sorted itself out.

Everything was set up as neatly and precisely as possible, and even Minny and Tinker were at the ready, bouncing on their toes a bit as they spoke to each other excitedly. The twins half expected their father to have after the elves for lacking decorum or something, but Blaise didn't comment. In fact, he almost seemed amused by their excitement for the night's adventures.

So now, Apollo stood next to his twin, trying to fathom exactly what the evening would be like. Almost assuredly, everyone would be dressed to the nines, as no Zabini party was ever bland or casual. Not by any means. So as Daphne paraded about the dining hall they had converted into a ballroom for the evening (for Blaise had never intended to personally throw parties like this one, and did not choose a home with an individual room for it), Apollo shot Christian a look of mild trepidation. It could either be a perfectly lovely evening, or something could just go horribly wrong. Things just seemed to end up like that when it came to stuffing several pureblooded families into one home.

Hopefully, this evening would be different.

Blaise passed Apollo an appraising look from across the hall, but his expression was not one of total disapproval, so the elder twin took it as a good sign, squaring his shoulders and standing even taller than usual. Christian nudged Apollo with an elbow, shaking his head as if he were the one disappointed in the heir. Apollo ignored him, instead glancing towards the door. As if on cue, a knock sounded and the first of those invited arrived.

Gesturing with a nod towards the door, Apollo silently told his twin to come with him to the door. Pulling it open, Apollo braced himself, passing a glance to Christian. Both knew that many things were riding on Blaise's approval of the boys' behavior. Christian's apprenticeship. Apollo's. The whole agreement regarding Quality Quidditch Supplies. Everything mattered, inevitably.

Finn liked the hours before going to a ball, or to a party, or to whichever social outing her father was actually letting her attempt. It was far better than the event itself, for that was when Finn found herself flustered and uncertain. Of course, she loved going. In theory, going out was so much better than being stuck inside all day long. The summers were full or boredom and loneliness for her, only fragmented by stolen interactions with the help and the odd day when Orpheus allowed her out to visit with her friends. She would wander her huge home, book in one hand, a sigh constantly hanging on her lips, lethargy in her joints. Being told there was a party changed everything.

She knew that once she got there, she would feel out of place. Somehow, she knew she was not a pureblood. Perhaps her father had been pureblood before he had been turned, but they had tainted blood now. It just... didn't count. And even though they were still invited every time, she somehow feared that the hosts would realize that the Grimms were intruders and they would be booted from the event. That would surely enrage Orpheus, and Fiona did not want to see her father truly angry.

She had been to many a pureblood event. She knew the social graces. She knew which spoons to pick up, which hand went where, and how to stay silent and avoid the champagne. She was great at standing erect and keeping her mouth clamped shut, her eyes bright and alert. The problem came when she was actually engaged in conversation. She spoke softly, she spoke politely, and she spoke with all the dignity and grace befitting a young woman on her way to womanhood. But she could never muster up anything interesting to say. All she wanted to say that might be interesting would center around her ragtag friends, and she knew she would be revealed as a fraud, as somehow who chose commoners over royalty. So she spoke of the weather, of the news, of the dresses, offering nothing more than superficial approval. And with each retreating back, she sunk into further belief that she was as useless as one human being could get.

But preparing for a ball... That was good. She had time alone. She bathed, she slipped on a dress she knew to be expensive and custom, and donned the expensive heirlooms that further fit the disguise. Her hair was brushed out, and slipped back into a black diamond headband. She was the picture of elegant youth, cultivated innocence. She slipped her feet into the heels and stood before her mirror, turning, ensuring the dress truly was modest yet flattering. It was perfect. Finn had very many perfect things. Her life could seem perfect.

She would appreciate it one day. She knew she would. She hoped she would.

She approached the estate on her father's arm, shivering with what he assumed to be anticipation. "Daddy, please tell me."

Orpheus smiled, nodding his head to another guest who had hurried from the home to retrieve his wife's shawl. "But, I love surprising you."

Finn shook her head, "But I hate it. You know I'm much better at small talk when I can prepare."

He laughed. "You think you are odder than you really are, Fig."

She scrunched up her nose, acting cute even though she knew she was much stranger than her father could even suppose. "You're just teasing me now."

He sighed. "Alright." The ascended the stairs. "I thought you would enjoy the surprise, because I think you know our hosts."

Finn faltered. "But I don't know anyone," she blurted.

He paused, turning his head to give his daughter a peculiar look. "Sure you do." He blinked, shaking off the comment and giving his daughter another charming smile. "Don' tell me that school I send you off to has kicked everyone else out."

Finn stopped in her tracks. Her father nearly yanked her along, not realizing she had stopped. He turned, looking at her. "Fiona-"

"We're at one of my classmates houses?" she said hollowly, pale.

Orpheus nodded. "Yes, the Zabinis. Fiona, come inside-"

Finn quickly shook her head, swallowing a salty lump down her throat. Tears were threatening to break. "No, Daddy. Please. I don't want to go in."

Orpheus stared. "I promised to introduce Norris Connolly to you. He's one of my business associates and he believes-"

"Daddy, please," Finn begged, stepping forward and grabbing his shirtsleeves. "I just can't. Please."

Her father's face darkened as suspicion loomed. "Why?"

She shook her head, her throat dry. "I... I just-"

"You're ashamed of us?"

"No, Daddy, no, that's not it, I-"

"Am ashamed of me."

"No, Daddy!" Tears welled in her eyes and Orpheus turned away, looking at the doors. "Please, I just don't want to go."

Orpheus turned back to look at his daughter, his face stony and cold. "You will go inside. You will dance. You will eat. You will talk. Do you understand?"

Agony stretched her features as she whispered, "Daddy-"

"You will make everyone envy us for being Grimms. Do you understand?"

There was the cruelty in her father's face that she had seen before, the cruelty that plagued her nightmares, that unsettled her reality. She dropped her gaze and quietly followed her father up the steps and through the world.

It was nice having friends while it lasted.

The waiting, oh the waiting.

You would guess that waiting for something was awful, so did Brice. But then, he also liked waiting. It gave him time to think about the crazy things his mind kept shooting at him.

He looked to the clock on the wall. Made by muggles, sure. But it was still very useful. He knew he wouldn't take one with him, though. He didn't know how the Zabinis felt about muggles.

His mind then wandered towards readying up for the party. He bathed, put on some expensive clothes, and then...
Waited.
He didn't know if his sister and mother would come, and he finally decided to stop waiting for them.  It wouldn't change anything, so it really wouldn't matter. He stepped up to his sister's room and knocked lightly.

"I'm going."

As simple as that, he walked downstairs to find his father sitting there, as ready as Brice was. He raised his eyes to face Brice, his eyes shining.

"They're done?"

"No."

As quickly as the shining on his eyes appeared, they disappeared.

"Well then, why did you come downstairs?"

"Am I not allowed to?"

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. We're going without them."

"Well then, took you long enough to decide."

Brice simply followed his father towards the Zabini's house. He got progressively more anxious, finally being able to talk to someone during summer was going to be great!

Once they finally got there, he tidied his clothes for the last time and standing elegantly, before calmly knocking on the door. He was welcomed by.. Two Apollos? No,  that must be Christian, he thought to himself. He let out an casual "Hello" which he quickly disguised in order to still look formal to his father and Apollo's family.

He had finally arrived.

Mason bad heard about party for all purebloods basically who were young ones. He wasn't sure ag first to attend or not. But at the end he decided just to check it out. He wanted to know who will come here and what kind of party it is exactly this time.

He didn't really wait it that much. He soon walked towards the place where if was held, Zabini mansion, with his family basically. He had came here with his own will thia time. He didn't really hope much from such parties ever. They soon arraived to the mansion. He did knock on the door and soon it was also opened.

He greeted the boys, who looked very alike, like a rest of is family did. He knew them basically by face but never really talked with them.

The red dress looks fine.

Yeah, but it draws attention. I don't want to draw any to myself.

Then use the blue one. It's almost black looking so it should be fine.

Hm.. I guess. I don't really know if I want to go though. Parties, especially Pureblood ones, aren't my thing. More so if you have to be formal.

Well it's for Apollo. You're trying to support him, so deal with it.

Hitame sighed. Why couldn't she have been raised like a proper Pureblood girl who knew how to act properly at Pureblood get togethers and didn't care if she had to go to one? Oh yeah, because her parents were b*tches and she had to be raised by Muggles, and an orphanage when they died, and she hadn't known she was a Pureblood until she was almost twelve.

The worst part of it all was that she didn't have family to go with. While everyone began entering the mansion, Hitame stood there is hong she had at least one family memer that could comfort her about going in. This was definitely something she wasn't used to and she didn't know how se was going to get through it. Besides either standing off to the side or staying by Apollo and awkwardly greeting people he would have to talk to.

"Might as well just go in." She said softly to herself, walking up to the door. She had a brief moment of insecurity, were she was about to walk away when the door was opened for her an she was forced to go inside. This wasn't where she belonged she continued to tell herself as she greeted Apollo and Christian. "Hello.."

Christian wished that Blaise had not made the event so important for them. How were they to have a good time when he would be watching over everything and expecting them to be the proper pureblooded sons that he perhaps told his friends about over drinks or whatever his father did? Mum looked fairly pleased with it all, but Daphne too knew the significance of the evening, so she stayed next to her husband and stood proudly as she observed.

A boy Christian didn't know entered first, greeting Apollo directly, his father just next to him. So Apollo replied with a nod of his head and a, "Please, do come in. We will have a buffet-style dinner for those interested in the side room, there." Gesturing with one hand towards an archway, Apollo stepped to the side and ensured that they had room to enter without issue. Apollo would speak more with Brice later, assuredly, but if he did not greet most of the guests, it would reflect poorly on him.

"After a time, I can take over," Christian offered after Brice walked in. "So you can chat with your friends, play the good host and all." A smile broke out of both of their faces, just in time to turn and see another person coming in.

"Evening, Mason," Apollo offered, inclining his head the same way as before. "There's food in the side room, and I'm sure my mother will insist on dancing and everything else very soon."

"Come on in," Christian added, moving so he could let Mason in but then catching someone in his gaze. "Apollo, she came."

The elder twin turned, knowing who his brother was referring to. "Hit!" He grinned, "You look great." Apollo glanced at Christian, suddenly tempted to take up his brother's offer. Standing up taller, he bent his arm at the elbow and offered it to Hitamé. "Shall we?" He asked dramatically, doing what he could to get her to relax. Leading her into the main hall, he glanced around and headed in the direction that Brice and Mason had gone. Maybe he could manage to talk to several people at once and keep everyone talking. That was better than anyone standing alone, wasn't it? At least until Father announced that he wanted to play cards or something, and mum pushed the boys into dancing with whoever was there. Apollo especially, considering he was the heir and all the rest.

Christian, however, was still at the door, and peered out into the fading light of evening, his gaze finding two more people outside. They seemed to be having a discussion so he held off, but once it drew to a close, he paid more attention and found that he indeed knew the girl standing there. "Hello, Fiona!" He offered, ensuring he sustained the appearance of the polite host. "Good evening, sir," he added, unsure how to address the man in question. As he had never met the fairly intimidating figure before, he was uninterested in offending or starting the night off poorly. "We're glad you could make it."

As uncomfortable as it was for her to be the way she was dressed and in something that was totally out of her element, Hitame was determined to make the most out of this night. Smiling at Apollo, she took his arm with her hand and began to walk as he led her into the other room, turning back to Christian quickly saying, "Nice seeing you Christian."

Hitame might not be the perfect Pureblood girl that most would expect her to be, like with the other girls, but she was good enough that she could be near the Zabini heir without much trouble from his parents. At least she thought his parents didn't have any problems with her, and even if they did she didn't know anything about those problems so she assumed there weren't any.

She couldn't help but think that most people there would have an issue with her because she knew that a lot of them, well the ones that she knew were there including Apollo, were Slytherins and the house rivalry between Gryffindors and Slytherins was there a lot of the time. A lot of people still couldn't have their views on the rivalry changed. She was just glad that Apollo wasn't the same as the rest of them.

That made her think. Why was he different from them? Why was she? Why was it that both of them didn't care about the rivalry? And why were a lot of the students starting to not care anymore?

She shook her head, realizing that she was starting to lose herself in her thoughts. This was the last place she wanted to do that in. The Gryffindor looked at Apollo and sighed. She wasn't good at this, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Hitame knew that he would want her to relax, but this was just to weird to her and different, that she didn't know how she was supposed to act. She was more muggle than pureblood, after all.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do." she finally said to him, pulling her arm away from him a bit. "You know I've never really been able to act like the Pureblood I am. I wasn't raised that way." she added, lowering her gaze as though she was embarrassed about her Muggle upbringing. But it wasn't that she was embarrassed about, not at all, she was actually quite proud of that. What she was embarrassed about was that she had to admit to Apollo that she didn't know what to do.

Her cheeks were burning as she realized that she had admitted that to him and she let her arms drop, starting to play with the hem of her dress.

It felt strange, this almost parading about with Hitamé. But of anyone he could have done so with, it felt the most natural with her. He knew she wasn't exactly within her comfort zone, but it wasn't like he would have left his job at the door to walk around with just anyone. Not that manning a door was the most important thing Apollo could have done. But his father would judge his choice regardless, and few could have persuaded him to risk that scrutiny besides her. She wasn't comfortable on her own, and he wasn't about to leave her to try and float.

Apollo frowned slightly at how tense she was, but covered it quickly and replaced it with the look he had learned from his father: one of calm and nonchalance fit for a pureblood heir and future patriarch. His free hand moved to cover her own, unconsciously mirroring how his parents often moved through the rooms of events like this one.

"Do I need to give you lessons?" He teased, passing her a bemused smile as they moved through the archway and into the second room in the home. "No one will notice if you pretend you've got it covered," he assured her after a moment. "If you tell yourself you're unafraid, everyone else will believe it, too."

Glancing around, he decided not to push her, instead waiting for someone to come over and talk to them. Until then, at least, Apollo could chat with his best friend without worry. "Having a long summer, then? I certainly have been. At this point I'm actually looking forward to going back to school next month."

She appreciated his trying to keep her relaxed. For someone who hadn't known her as long as others have, Apollo had a way of making her feel comfortable in even the most uncomfortable situations. That was why he was her best friend, she thought. Some people who she knew since she was a little girl didn't know her this well, and though it was kind of sad, she was glad that at least Apollo knew her as well as he did.

She allowed his hand to touch hers, knowing that he was doing it to comfort her, though she nearly pulled away at his touch. She almost stared at his hand on hers, and felt the burning in her cheeks coming back. Now more than ever, she wished her hair wasn't tied up so she could use it to hide her face. That way Apollo wouldn't be able to see her blush.

Why do I always end up making a fool of myself? she thought. Though the Gryffindor girl hadn't really done anything to make herself look foolish, she thought she already looked stupid because she was blushing so much. "You might have to." she said, chuckling a bit. "I can seem like I've got everything under control for anything, except for things like this. I just can't." she explained softly.

She wished she wasn't so bad at this. At least he was keeping a conversation going so it wasn't so awkward. "I can't wait to go back either. Summers have never really been my thing, since I never see anyone and since I usually don't have a place to go." she said awkwardly, placing her free hand on her arm and tightening her grip around it.

Maybe this wasn't the best topic to talk about with her.

--

The Yaxley twins couldn't miss out on this. Like, they literally couldn't miss out on this party. Their parents wouldn't allow it. Especially not their father, who thought this was one of the most important things in the world. Evander seemed bored, Cronis noticed as the family approached the Zabini mansion. He wished that at least his brother could be saved from this and wouldn't have to go.

But just because he wasn't the heir, didn't mean that he was allowed to stay home while the rest of them were at the party. After all, as their father always put it, what would everyone else say?

Cronis hated that. He hated that his father never had anything else to say. And he also hated being the heir to the Yaxley line. Now, because of this party, his father would say that he would have to do the same and Cronis wasn't looking forward to it. Especially since he and Evander would have to stand at the door, or near it, to make sure that they greeted everyone that arrived, much like the Zabini twin that was currently standing at the door when they arrived at it.

"Evening Christian!" Evander greeted brightly, masking his boredom and reluctance to be there. "Evening." Cronis greeted shortly after, his tone a little more monotone compared to that of his brother. Their parents greeted the boy, before entering the mansion and heading toward Christian and Apollo's parents to chat with them. Cronis watched them with little interest before deciding that he would go off into the other room where some of the other guests seemed to already be.

"I'll meet up with you later, Evan." he said, waving to Christian before he left. Evander decided to stay with Christian, since he didn't seem to have much company considering he was standing alone at the door. He nearly jumped when Christian exclaimed at the arrival of another person who was accompanied by an older man who admittedly, scared Evander.

"Good evening." he smiled at them, standing a little off to the side, wanting to be friendly.

Finn was horrified to have already ran into one of the twins that she knew so well from school. Of course, she did not know Apollo super well, but she knew a lot of him just from what she knew of Christian, but their friend had always made it sort of seem like his Slytherin counterpart was off limits. No, it was seeing Christian that horrified her. He might not have been her closest friend, but he had witnessed her in an environment where she was definitely not her father's picture of her. And here, the three of them were now interaction.

Her mind immediately jumped to one of the last times she had seen Christian - they had all been crammed into a muggle car that had later been proven to be stolen. They had crashed a party and almost gotten in trouble for the car theft. Everything about her behavior with her friend, especially on that day, was everything her father feared for her, everything her father despised in her generation. And now she was looking at someone with the capabilities of bursting that bubble. She was terrified of her father being introduced to that side of her life.

She suddenly realized that it was equally as unsettling that Christian was seeing her like this. In a dress, in heels, her hair done, looking... looking like a girl being prepared to be married off. Their friends were so casual, so relaxed, so against growing up and... and... none of them knew that this was her life. She hadn't thought anyone else knew, though. Sure, Nora and Ducky knew she was a vampire, but no one knew that she was the daughter of potentially the most powerful vampire in Europe. And, sure, no one knew that Orpheus Grimm was that, but so many suspected it. And she was terrified everything was going to come unraveled in front of her.

Whoa, girl, you need to calm down, came the soothing voice from within her. The voice that was quickly trumped by the clamor that was her anxieties and fears.

She looked to her father, trying to keep her face smooth and calm. Orpheus smiled. "I'm glad to finally attend a function in which I can meet my daughter's peers," he said, placing a hand softly atop her shoulder. "It always seems I'm introducing her to my friends, and never the reverse."

Finn was completely pink - at least Christian had not called her Finn. She blinked. "Daddy, this is Christian Zabini. Christian, this is my father."

He held out a hand for a firm handshake. "Orpheus Grimm - a pleasure." He gazed across the party and said, "I'll leave you two to catch up - I believe I have a few business contacts here. I'd like to get the business out of the way." He gave a brisk little bow and strode away, the very picture of dark dignity.

Finn slowly turned back to Christian, now a very even shade of pink. "I didn't... I... um..." She swallowed. "I didn't know this was your party."