Getting to Know the Ravenclaw Champion *Open*

Lanie walked into the common room after dinner that night. She saw a full blown party going on before her eyes. Lanie was taken aback. She peered around the common room, in desperate search of someone she knew.

Then, she spotted Christy. Lanie walked over to her and said shyly, "Hi. Heard about the Quad. Congrats!"

"Thanks." she said ignoring Gin's comment about her. Everyone knew she kept fantastic care of her self, and that she was very hygenic. Common knowledge to anyone who would be in the house with her, "Help yourself to the stuff." she said brightly drinking one of the butterbeers.

Lanie grabbed a butterbeer off of a table and took a small sip. She set it down on the table and walked back over to Christy. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" she asked warily.

Ginevra rolled her eyes as Christabelle walked to Laine, another werewolf who she had met just a few nights ago at a forest. "Real noble." she muttered, obviously being sarcastic, as to her, Christabelle was the least noble person in the whole room. Turning around, she just went over to where Amelia and Marco were. Since she was good with names, she knew Ameila's upon hearing it, but in her head she had heard Marco's name wrong and just thought it was Mario. Evenutally she would be corrected, but for now she hadn't said anything about it. "Sorry about that. I'm Ginevra." she introduced herself to Ameila, not being one to just back down completley. Leaving the room would only give Chrisabelle the glory she did not deserve, so staying would at least just be amusing, if not that, well, at least she could say she had done something out of her normal routine of staying outside all night, away from everyone else. "But call me Gin." taking part in the toast only because the word 'our' success was used, she just said 'what the hell' in her head, as not doing it would just make her look like a B****, and she wasn't- Ginevra just had temper issues towards Christabelle, especially now that the girl had spilled her secret.

Amelia was relieved when Christabelle took the butterbeer she offered, tipping it back to take a sip. The blue in the bottle reflected the blue in her eyes, a bright color Amelia hadn't noticed before. When the blond smiled, she seemed a little bit more human, like not everything about her was robotic and perfect. The skin around her eyes crinkled up a bit and she had slight dimples, a trait Amelia had always thought "cute", but, no surprise, Christabelle made it "beautiful".

Satisfied that she had achieved at least some level of diplomacy to span the great divide in the room, Amelia took her own butterbeer and went to stand near some of the other students. Another girl had arrived, a girl by the name of Lanie. As was typical, Amelia had never talked to the girl before, but she seemed to be on better grounds with Christabelle than most of the rest of the room.

Maybe another friendly face will help balance out all the negativity Amelia thought, taking a drag off her bottle. Just as she was lowering it from her lips, the explosive girl came over and introduced herself, now definitively calmer than she had previously been.

Amelia extended a tentative hand to the girl who introduced herself as Ginevra, Gin for short. Amelia had never been much for shortening names, but this girl seemed not one to push, so when Amelia replied she used the girl's preferential name.

"Nice to meet you, Gin," she said, polite but not overtly conversational. Amelia wasn't really the talkative type, so it wasn't really her forte to be the life of the party. She stood in awkward silence for a few more minutes before clearing her throat, extending another handshake toward the boy he had quipped earlier about Christabelle, hoping his caustic wit would not end up cutting her as well.

"I'm Amelia," she said, reaching down to see if he would take her hand, "And you are?"

"You haven't missed much Lanie." Christabelle replied as she took a sip of the butterbeer that Amelia had offered her. "Just wish everyone was in such a better mood, they all seem to be real downers tonight for some reason." she continued to say hoping that things there would soon cheer up. After all this was supposed to be something where the students could let go and just not think of their studies for a while. It had been the real reason Christabelle had thrown the party. Just because she felt like doing something nice. The Quad tournament truly had nothing to do with it. It just happened to be the reason she was using.

She smiled and everyone could see the slight gap in her teeth. It wasn't too terribly noticeable but enough that if you paid attention you could see it. Even as a veela she was flawed in some ways but she kept ways of hiding it. After all she was still technically human which meant she wasn't perfect no matter how much the world made her seem that way. The way Gin went off on her about her family really didn't make sense to her, it wasn't as if she could have helped who she was born to. Had she been born to someone like Lanie's parents she might not be the same person and that was one thing she was grateful for. When she was born she had broken the mold for generations to come.

"Marco where has NaLa gone?" she asked curiously having not really seen the Irish Phoenix in a while. She loved spending time with the bird and she was hoping to soon find a familiar of her own taking the advice that Marco and Godric had given her.

Lanie looked around. As usual, Marco was someone she had never talked to. "Who's Marco?" Lanie asked tentatively.

Keith grinned slightly at Amelia's -that was that girl's name!- awkwardness. Apparently small talk wasn't something she excelled at. She seemed nice enough though, and Keith shook the hand she extended towards him. "Keith." He said, nodding. "Keith Nicholas." He lifted his hand in a half wave to Gin. "Gin."

He took another sip of butterbeer. The stuff really was good, but the rational part of his mind was telling him that his lack of size was really becoming an issue when drinking the stuff. His mind was getting fuzzy and he couldn't quite place where they were.

Although Keith's hand felt small in hers, his handshake was surprisingly firm. Amelia found his smile a bit contagious and she returned a small one of her own. His balance of sarcasm and sweet was unusual in any individual, but it certainly made him a likable character. He seemed the trouble-making type, but Amelia found that to be almost endearing. She had never had a phase like that when she was younger, what with the pressure of her parents to be their star child, so she was glad to see the spark of mischief in the boy's eyes.

Chirstabelle was talking to Lanie, a conversation she couldn't overhear from where she was, but Amelia did hear her shouting toward Marco about someone named Na'La. Amelia didn't dwell much on the fact that she didn't recognize the name; before the last round of introductions she knew only two people in the entire room. She continued to sip her butterbeer slowly, not even close to reaching the label yet. Butterbeer had a relatively low alcoholic content, but Amelia had never really partaken in spirits much through her years at Hogwarts - she had no friends to drink with, and no one likes to drink alone - so she knew her tolerance would be low.

Amelia scanned the room, observing the alliances her housemates formed, who they talked to and who they scorned. She had always been interested in the interplay between the students and teachers of Hogwarts; who one chooses as friends says a lot about a person. When Amelia's attention fell back on the boy on the floor the mischief in his eyes had been replaced by something a bit foggier, and the butterbeer in his bottle had been replaced by air.

"Are you feeling alright?" Amelia asked, recognizing the look from the way her brother had come home many nights last year. Although it had surely taken Raoul many more drinks, the look couldn't be mistaken. His rebellion had taken full force last year, culminating in his disappearance.

Giving a half-wave back to Keith, she smiled. Smiling, she was glad that Amelia didn't seem to argue on why she wanted to be called for her short name. If they became good friends, there was a chance that she would tell her why she didn't want to be called Ginevra. It wasn't that she didn't like her name, as she did, but ever since her parents died, only Darren called her Ginevra. Only. No one else. End of story. "i'm not going to be explode on you, by the way." she added somewhat teasinginly, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head at herself. She had noticed the girls hesitation. "Keith, you should probably lay off the butterbeer. It doesn't even have any alcohol, unless added." kids were allowed butterbeer only because it was non-alcoholic, so therefore it was only alcoholic if someone douched the supply.