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

[Margo P. Richards]

Margo knew she should have been more patient. She had the entire night to plant her seeds, water as necessary, and reap her rewards. But she wanted to start off strong, shake up Savauge so he knew he was in trouble to lose his money. So she wanted to see Waldorf and Yaxley just get down to it.

Where was Clair anyway?

She just kept it casual, trying to normalize the act of snogging someone at random. "Why not? There's nothing wrong with it." Was it a muggle thing to be so uptight about their sexuality? Merlin.

Truth or dare could work, though. "Yes. That. Good idea. Let's get some other people in on it too. Um-" she saw Apollo approach and almost called out to him, before realizing the game would almost certainly put him in an awkward position. (Margo knew a thing or two about being the object of someone's affections.) "Molly! Cassie! McKinley! Come on over! Yaxleys 1 and 2!"

[Charlotte Waldorf]

Charlotte started breathing once again when she realized Margo actually likes the idea.
It's not like Charlotte thought it won't work, even if she was the outsider here, Charlotte was popular at parties in Muggle words, she knew all good games.
The one more thing needed to be done.
Margo needs to get drunk.
On that way, Charlotte will be sure she won't try to act like Cupid once again.
"We need all people, including Ace and Zabini brothers" in that moment she saw Apollo.
He looked like he wanted to approach them but suddenly decided to go away.

"Apollo! Come here, we are all playing truth or dare!" she called almost sure he would be shocked because she actually knows his name, even if they were going to the same school. If Charlotte needed to do this, everyone would.

"And where is Clair? He would enjoy. Maybe for him, we can make one new rule. Who decided to not do their truth or dare, must drink the cup of this terrible drink on the ex?" Charlotte smiled. She can do this. If she needs to play some games with freaks, she can at least get drunk.

[Apollo Zabini]

Vastly uninterested in the concept of Charlotte's game and Margo's shouting, Apollo turned on his heel. "He went outside," he called over his shoulder. "I'll ask him to come back. Maybe I'll see if I can find Ace as well." A lie. Surely Hit was far enough down the hallway by now? And what did it matter anyway? He was just going to head down to the dungeons. But as he walked out the door, he found himself in the same hallway as not only Hit but also Clair. Merlin help him.

Hit was a little ways down, calling out for Julian. Whatever. Apollo was beyond annoyed with the whole evening, and despite Violet's plan seeming quite clever before, he didn't have the energy or interest in trying to make sure it worked. So he gave Clair a vague nod before starting towards the stairs.

Violet, of course, was trying to be helpful and clear things up. "Julian, love - how much have you had to drink? We were-" she put on a rather fake blush, their so-called actions implied. Better to let him think something had happened even though it hadn't. "I thought you wanted to. I didn't realize that I made you feel sick."

Moments later, Violet Archeron - the Ravenclaws' seventh year beauty queen of sorts - was rushing down the hall, tears streaming down her cheeks. She burst past Apollo, sending his mind (and his feet) spinning. What the hell had Kapur done?

Taking back his decision to leave, he stormed back down the hall. "Julian! What did you do to her?"

Inside, Christian looked up sharply at Margo's shouting. "Thank Merlin she left us out of that. None of Margo's games end up going well for me," he told Clytemnestra. But Charlotte was looking around and it was just a matter of time. "You seem to have advice for getting out of these sorts of things. How do we escape this one?"

[Cronis Yaxley]

Cronis was on edge now, after all that. He had half a mind to follow Zabini and tell him a thing or two. In fact...

"No you don't."

Damn. Evander must have caught on to his plan because the younger twin grabbed onto his arm as he started to walk in the direction Apollo had gone.  Clearly, Evander didn't want him to cause trouble but that was what he was good at, apparently. He didn't think he minded that.

An irked expression appeared on his face when he felt Evander pulling him toward Margo and co. after calling them. Was this his idea of making him forget what he wanted to do? Well, even if he didn't like it, if it got his brother to do something more than mope around over Katherine, that'd be a win.

Evander made bad decisions, though.

Truth or dare, really?

Outside, Hit stared after Violet as she ran down the hall. She blinked, wondering what exactly just occurred between her and Julian. It didn't take long for her to see Apollo, he was asking what Julian had just done. She shook her head, determined to make it to the other Gryffindor before Apollo did and she followed the path Violet had come from. "Julian?" She called again.

"Wait, what's wrong? Are you okay?" She asked, inching toward the boy. Why did he look sick? She must have been right about whatever Violet had given him.

[Clair Sauvage]

Clytemnestra looked at Christian as if he were mad.

"You can hide under the table if you want," she suggested, "but I happen to adore this game."

---

Ever since Julian snapped at Anabelle, he'd been wondering what this was leading up to. Now he knew.

"He couldn't have done anything to her, Zabini," Clair jogged down the hall to join the Slytherin. "She had him under an enchantment the entire time, but I think you knew that."

"Was that the plan? For them to leave so you could come out here and just happen to stumble across him assaulting her? I bet it really upset you when Hit got in the way of all that."

[Julian Kapur]

A shaky hand went up to his hair, threading through before it froze, and Julian tugged helplessly at the roots. What had just happened? He was inside, talking to a bunch of people, and then Violet was walking towards him...

Had she told him she wanted to spend some time with him privately? Why would she do that? Julian was ambitious, but he wasn't stupid. He knew he never stood a chance with Violet Acheron. Why had she approached him? Why had they left the party? What had just been about to happen?

And, hell, why did he stop it?

These questions tumbled through his mind, doubling back and front flipping through his mind. He could hear one the Zabini's barking at him, and the smooth rumble of Savauge.

But Hitame was stepping towards him and he raised his head, swaying slightly where he stood. "Did I... Something's off. I don't feel right."

[Apollo Zabini]

"Are you mad?" Apollo snapped, slowing to face Clair. "Julian wouldn't do that. Everybody knows he's desperate, but not that much. Hell, nobody would believe it if I claimed as much, anyway."

Looking down the hall where Hit had hurried away, Apollo shook his head. "Making a fool of someone is entirely different than claiming they forced themselves on somebody. I don't have any interest in accusing people of being something like that. Regardless of what you think of me, I'm not that low.

"But he wasn't supposed to make her cry, Clair." His expression was genuine, though he doubted the Ravenclaw would notice or even care. "I only came back to see what happened."

Inside, Christian lifted both eyebrows at Lux's retort. He didn't think it was supposed to be a challenge, but he still took it as one - and he hadn't even been drinking that much, yet. Merlin help him. Instead of really giving himself much time to think about it, he said, "Alright, then." And he walked over to stand next to Charlotte.

[Margo P. Richards]

Margo had quite an audience now, and she wondered if she could score extra points for extra couples, even if they hadn't bet. At the very least, she could steal Clair's couple. They had bet on them. And she didn't see him around doing any of the heavy lifting.

She knew Charlotte wanted to ruin this thing, but she would do her best to put distance between herself and Margo's suggestions. So she finished off of her drink and set the cup down, clapping her hands together. "Right. Let's get started. We have quite a group, so why don't we start with an icebreaker. Boys." She glanced around at all of them. "Yes. All of you. Come to a consensus. Truth or dare."

[Molly Weasley]

Cassie had joined them, but Molly still felt awkward, trapped between two girls she had absolutely nothing in common with. She wasn't an entertainer. She didn't keep people talking. She was completely the wrong person for the job.

As she saw it, she had three options. Stay here and have a staring contest with Cassie and McKinley. Migrate over to Molly, who had gathered the bulk of the party. Or try an escape and get wrapped up in the drama unfolding between Clair, Apollo, Julian and company.

She could barely believe the words coming out of her mouth. "Why don't we go see what they're up to?" she said, lifting her chin towards Margo's group. She crossed towards them, angling for Christian.

At least there would be one beam of rational thought over there. One ally in the madness.

[Anabelle Mulciber]

"I.. We should get you to the hospital wing, Julian." Hit stammered, feeling just slightly helpless. She had no clue what exactly went down between the him and Archeron but right now she couldn't bring herself to ask or even yell at him like she'd originally planned to do. He looked like hell right now, so anything else could wait until he felt better.

She held her hand out to Julian, hoping to be able to lead him to the hospital wing to be checked out.

She didn't miss Clair and Apollo's little chat, though. She'd wanted to believe that it was just coincidence that Apollo had come up to her of all people earlier, but if what Clair had said was true.. then it hadn't been and Hit had all the more reason to be mad at him. Apollo defending himself, but he didn't completely deny that he had been behind what had happened.

"So, you did have something to do with it, Apollo?" Hit asked, feeling herself get angry. Angrier, she supposed.

Inside, there was a big group surrounding Margo now and the Yaxley boys found themselves stuck in a game of truth or dare. Evander didn't exactly seem to mind but Cronis was more on the side of wanting to leave, his mind already wandering to whatever was happening outside the room. Evander seemed determined to not let him go outside, though.

Even Freyja ended up joining them, the two she'd originally been with having left. She seemed like she was having too much fun thinking about what could happen during the game and Cronis winced, not wanting to know exactly what delusional thoughts were going around in her head.

They couldn't be anything good.

"Truth or dare?" he heard Evander call out to him.

Cronis shrugged. "Truth?"