Re: [OPEN/MASS THREAD] Valentine's Day Party

[Julian Kapur]

He didn't know if Apollo was there to help him out, or if it were all a coincidence. He didn't know, definitely didn't care. He turned back to Violet with a content smile, eyes shining through the glaze, and allowed her to lead the pair of them out the doors of the Room of Requirement.

Margo had expected some resistance from Charlotte. Charlotte wouldn't be Charlotte if she weren't obstinately refusing to follow anyone else's suggestions. "Of course he knows you exist! Same house, same year, you've been stuck together for six years! Besides, you're, like, totally hot. You're way too hard on yourself, Char."

The girl was all frowns so Margo shook her head casually. "I didn't say you were interested in anyone here. Just saying, if you were interested, it's a way to get them at least thinking about you. Even if they aren't here. And if that's not even the case, it could be good to bring some guys out of the woodwork."

She had just started. She still had some tactics to use. She let out a sigh. "Poor Evander. I think he was really hoping something would work out." Her lips twisted sadly and she lifted her cup to her lips, making a show of drinking in the hopes of getting Charlotte to follow suit. She smacked her lips. "And it's Valentine's to boot..."

[Apollo Zabini]

Apollo lifted a disapproving eyebrow at Hit's response, which was only compounded by the bite of her response. The other eyebrow joined the first, and he lifted his chin enough to feel a little intimidating, even if it didn't work on her.

"Well," he began, his voice just as stiff as hers. "Then I certainly hope that you and your new friends are having a grand time without me."

Oh, look. There went Julian, with Violet. Brilliant. Taking a step back, Apollo very nearly walked off and left it at that. But he simply couldn't resist. She had been his best friend during their young years, after all.

"I do ask, though, that you do a bit of research next time before condemning me." Perhaps she knew not of his injuries, the attack on his family, the parts in between. Rather than explaining himself, he just nodded to each of the girls in turn. "Freyja. Lovely as ever. See you around, Anabelle. Or maybe not."

And with that, he turned, hardly caring who he walked up to. Whoever was nearest, perhaps, would let him pretend to listen to their conversation. Was that Lux with Christian still? Merlin. No thanks. He aimed for Charlotte and Molly, though he walked just casually across the room.

Christian, seeing Violet's exit, clenched his teeth. And then Apollo looking over at them - that certainly didn't help. So he reached out toward Clytemnestra's hand, silently asking for the bottle of vodka to refill his cup.

[Anabelle Mulciber]

She really, really hated that this was happening now.

Her uneasy feeling about Violet's intentions had been replaced with heartache over what was now happening. Freyja's hand had moved down from her arm to the other girl's hand and Hit was holding onto her like her life depended on it. Freyja would probably lose feeling in her hand for a while.

Apollo's words hurt, but what hurt the most was him calling her by her name. Her real name. That was it, then. The thing she wanted to never happen, happened. She lost a friend. One who'd been dear to her, who still was, but she let her feelings of abandonment get in the way of that.

She didn't know that there were more reasons to why he hadn't spoken to her. (Freyja had tried to tell her at one point, but obviously she hadn't listened.) There was no way she was going to be able to fix any of this and when Apollo walked away, she stared after him with teary eyes.

She turned to Freyja.

"I- I want to.. I'm leaving." She turned on her heel and with tears threatening to fall from her eyes, she ran for the door.

"Smooth, Zabini." Freyja muttered, knowing it probably wasn't a good idea to follow Hit but it wasn't good to leave her alone either.

[Cassiopeia Cheshire]

Cassie was eyeing that snack/drink table there for awhile and she ended up taking there some random drink. She didn't really care what it was. She just wanted to drink something. She looked around the room.

She wasn't sure where to go or what was going on there at all. She decided to walk over to some people who she might know here. She noticed Molly, one of the girls she met in a study group for sure and probably in some classes. And there was this on a girl who she really couldn't remember right now but she didn't care.

"Hey," she said when she was near them. "What's up?" she asked there something random. She had no idea what to say really. She kind of felt so awkward at this party and she was hoping that if she is drunker it will make her social skills better.

[Evander Yaxley]

Evander usually liked to stay out of everyone else's problems and that's exactly what he'd been trying to do, though he did realize something was up with Kapur when he yelled at Hit. He also knew his brother wouldn't like Apollo Zabini coming up to Hit and practically making her cry which, in his opinion, was a little bit of an overreaction but he didn't know anything about what had happened between the two of them.

Well, he knew Hit cared about the Slytherin a lot.

That was probably also the reason that Cronis seemed to dislike him even though he'd previously been neutral toward his housemate. It made sense, actually.

Though Freyja had pushed him back to made her way to Hit, Evander felt his brother inching forward and he held him arm out to stop him from advancing any further. He actually had to hold him back when Hit said she was leaving and bolted toward the door. It was so close to when Kapur and Archeron had left so she'd probably see them somewhere nearby still.

The thought that she was leaving to follow them also crossed his mind.

[Clair Sauvage]

Whatever Violet was up to, it couldn't be good.  Not if she'd befuddled Jules, or whatever she'd done.  

If he could have depended on Anabelle to keep an eye on her housemate, Clair might have felt more at ease, but obviously he couldn't.  He was pretty sure she'd be running back to her dorm, not out to pick a fight with Archeron.

Wait, picking fights was his job.

He sighed.  Clair could already feel that there wasn't going to be a good outcome for him.  Someone needed to go make sure Violet wasn't up to anything too sketchy (because she most likely was) and since nobody else was volunteering, the epic tale of his and Julian's true love was probably going to end up on another bathroom wall.

Which was a shame, because Clair was definitely not in love with anyone (except possibly himself).

He pushed off the wall he was leaning against and went to find the other two.

(Clair out)

[Charlotte Waldorf]

"I'm sure that you are aware of the fact that I would never do that, especially when I'm sober" Charlotte shook her head in disbelief.
The trick was the second fact: Margo is not that kind of person who would just accept no as an answer. For some reason, she decided to bother Charlotte tonight, and Charlotte knew the other Ravenclaw wouldn't leave her alone, at least tonight.

So Charlotte decided to try to lead her attention for something other, anything but the boys and all this Cupid thing.
She drunk liquid from the cup again and she was already able to feel a little dizziness.
"Okay, what about this. Stop acting like the Cupid and let's do something fun. Charlotte looked at Margo in the expectation. She can do this. She can socialize. She only needed to pretend that those people are her friends.

"Let's play truth or dare" she smiled while hoping that the other girl would accept this little game with the goal to forget about Evander.

[Apollo Zabini]

Outside, Violet had veered off to the right, seeking out some alcove or empty classroom. The alcove showed up first. Of course, Julian was looking a bit odd and she wasn't quite sure how long that would last. So she nudged him to a stop in the slight shadow of their little spot and looked up at him with concern.

"You're looking a bit light-headed, Julian. Poor thing -- here, have a bit of my drink, hm? Might help."

And oh, would it ever. Before he could truly register that he would soon be feeling back to his old self, Violet was resting a hand on his chest and stepping closer. She lifted up on her toes, aiming to give him the kiss he had always seemed like he was after.

Inside the room, Apollo neared Margo and the others just as Waldorf suggested they play Truth or Dare. Hell no. Immediately, he backed up again, wondering if he shouldn't just up and leave.

[Anabelle Mulciber]

A bit down the hall from the Room of Requirement, Hit stopped dead in her tracks. Tears stained her cheeks but she remembered what she'd been so concerned about before Apollo had come up to her. She'd deal with her feelings about Apollo later, she decided. Right now she had to do something about Julian and Violet.

If there was one thing Hit knew she was good at, it was getting in the way.

She'd learned that the hard way, and she'd accepted it already so why not make it a useful trait? Hit nodded to herself and clapped her hands on her cheeks to focus herself before she wiped them clean of tears and turned to run down the opposite way she had come. She wasn't sure which way the other two would have come but she figured going back and starting from zero would help, at least a little.

"Julian!" She called, thinking it might get a reaction out of him if he really had been under some kind of influence. Hopefully he'd be well enough to answer her, if not, well then. She really didn't know.

If she was being honest her real intention in finding them wasn't to save him, per say, probably to yell at Julian for yelling at her. But if she got to say something to Archeron in the process then it would be worth it.

Oh, and if it got Julian out of that mess too.

[Julian Kapur]

Julian couldn't believe this was happening. Violet was gripping his hand, leading him off to a private part of the castle where they were sure to be left to their own devices. He had wanted to throw a party in the hopes of having a good night and maybe getting a snog out of it. But this new revelation was more important than any party, any one girl, any night.

He loved her. This was the rest of his life right here.

Alone now, he wanted to grab her and kiss her, to tell her how much he cared. But she looked worried and was holding out a drink, and he never wanted her to worry so he reached out and choked it down.

"Violet, I..." he paused, wincing a bit as he felt the drink travel down his esophagus. "Violet, I have to say that I'm just so..." He paused, his heartbeat suddenly slowing down. "I think it's great that..." He coughed and suddenly his entire body felt three times as heavy as it had the moment before. He blinked, his vision blurring slightly before pulling into greater focus. He leaned against the wall, reaching up to wipe his brow.

Someone was calling his name, but there was this dull, empty feeling deep in his chest that was making him feel... Merlin, he felt devastated.

"What's happening to me?"