The Yule Ball

The eye roll was not what Amelia had been expecting as a response, but after seeing it she knew that it should have been her first guess. She still didn’t know as much about Elijah as she would have liked to, but she knew enough to have concluded that he was rather flippant when it came to authority. Amelia had always held a very strict reverence for authority, instilled in her from young on by her parents, tutors, and music instructors. Although Elijah seemed to have had a strict upbringing as well, he seemed to have gone the more rebellious route that her older brother Raoul had chosen.

“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn,” Raoul had often insisted, blowing of his violin lessons to go out with some of his friends from the local village, those of the type that their mother would never have approved of. Though both Raoul and Amelia had both been subjected to the same childhood, they had turned out drastically different. Where she had grown to accept their parental pressures and learn what she was told, Raoul had finally broken free of their parents’ hold and taken off on his own, dropping out just last year. None of her family had seen him since, and though he deemed Amelia sane enough to write to, he still refused to come and visit her. He hated the authority inflicted on him at Hogwarts almost as much as that which stemmed from their home life.

Elijah took his sweet time in coming up with a verbal response, though that was almost okay because his facial expressions and posture provided nearly all the answers she needed. Amelia followed his lead when he drank from his glass, taking another drink of hers, tasting the rum he had added. The coke was now secondary to the more spiced flavour of the rum, which burned slightly on the back of her throat. As she set her goblet down, Elijah leaned toward her the space between them now at a minimum.

Suddenly, the rum was not the biggest distraction to her thought processes. Instead, it was Elijah’s proximity, and his whispered words so close to her lips. She could feel her skin stand on end when his hot breath spread across her face, sending chills down her spine and through to the very tips of her fingers and toes. Although she despised the response that she had not agreed to, she had to admit she liked the feeling. It was a bit like she imagined flying would be – imagined because she had never actually experienced it. The weightlessness and the caught-in-the-moment feeling took her by surprise, and so it took her a moment to process all that Elijah was saying. So lost was she in her thoughts about the sudden closeness and the onslaught of so many feelings she could not explain that Amelia hadn’t even realized Elijah had been rude until he mentioned it himself.

“No it’s really alri-” Amelia began, her response cut short by Elijah’s hand rising to her cheek. Although he had made the same gesture many times tonight, this time felt different. Whether it was the way they were so close together, the pheromones rising off his warm body, or the way his eyes lingered on her lips, the feelings Amelia had been working to suffocate had suddenly gotten a full breath of fresh air and were rising far too quickly to the surface.

She could feel her heart racing in her chest, knowing this was another of those moments where she either took a leap of faith or stayed quietly in her comfort zone. Elijah had pulled back a little, but not so far as to eliminate the possibilities their current situation provided. Amelia’s mind was racing, desperate to come to a conclusion before time carried her too far to go back. The mental debate raged between what she ought to do and what she wanted to do, ravaging her mind with its constant noise and struggle.

Enough. Amelia’s subconscious finally said quietly, not yelling over the noise in her mind, but rather allowing one small part of her to make the decision that the rest would have fought over until it was too late and her rationality won by default.

And so, it was with this thought that Amelia looked into Elijah’s eyes one last time before closing her own and placing a hand on the back of his neck. She leaned forward slowly until she felt her lips connect with Elijah’s, a gentle pressure between them. Although it was not her first kiss, Amelia felt nervous and anxious and a whole host of other emotions she could neither identify nor explain. But she was tired of fighting to understand and fighting to be in control and fighting against what she was feeling. And so, she stopped fighting and instead let herself go.

((OOC: I know you and Julia just had a little exchange, but I already had this post done before I read them. Can we please pretend that this occurred prior to that? If not, PM me and I will change it.))

Elijah heard a bang in the back of his mind and his brain caught up with what was happening. He’d blown at least half of that goddamn castle apart and found himself running through in search of Amelia. It was either an adrenaline rush or Elijah really had no idea what was going on outside his subconscious mind.

He was inside the castle and if he was honest, he was slightly scared. He wasn’t sure what exactly had happened. He seemed to be plodding along but it was if the doors were thrown open for him and his little army to flood through and into the castle. It seemed that they’d laid siege long enough and the people inside were exclaiming defeat at the top of their lungs. However, there was a long time to go before the battle was won.

You really do nothing but think about a load of rubbish don’t you!? Elijah heard Nachash’s hiss and couldn’t help but wonder why she was choosing to talk now.
Because idiot she is kissing you and once again you’re mucking it up. I honestly wonder what you’d do without me

It was then that Eli seemed to realise what exactly was happening. Amelia had initiated the kiss. Amelia had initiated the kiss. The wasn’t something he was expecting in the slightest. Not that he was complaining.

Immediately Elijah began to kiss her back. He wasn’t inexperienced at all he was just slightly unsure how to go about it. He couldn’t be rough with her. No way. So instead Elijah’s mouth moved slowly with Amelia’s. He was doing the only thing he’d thought about since their meeting in the Owlery and he was getting his way.

Eli’s eyes flicked closed and his other hand travelled to her waist, while keeping his right hand on her cheek. Elijah pulled Amelia closer to him. His mind was reeling and pent up emotions were being thrown out of the trunk he’d locked them in. All of the love he didn’t know he could ever possess and the desire among other things were thrown into the kiss one after the other.

Everything seemed to be finally focusing for him and he knew that this woman would be the death of him. The blushes that wandered across her skin reeking innocence and the little half smiles he’d got from her. All of it was enough to drive him absolutely mad and he wondered just how much he could get away with.

Elijah broke the kiss and began to trail short kisses along her jaw and down her pale neck. He placed a few on her shoulders and began to work his way back up to her lips. Elijah stopped, his lips barely millimetres away and blew air across her lips, teasing her.

“You are truly the most delicious woman I have ever come across, Amelia Lyons.” Elijah murmured. “You are completely intoxicating.”

Elijah stopped her from saying anything and claimed her lips again. His hand had long since fallen from her cheek and both were at her waist, slowly urging her closer. Elijah deepened the kissed, mentally slapping himself for being un-gentlemanly. He heard Nachash scoff and he smirked slightly and continued to kiss her until he broke the kiss once more. He placed a kiss on the pulse point on her neck before raising an eyebrow at her.

“That was different.” he smiled, slightly breathless but looking forward to more if he could be cheeky and steal some kisses from her.

(No it's okay. You could just add Julia and Eli's small conversation to the end of the post after this one)

Where were the champions? As far as Shacklebolt could see, he couldn't find Selwyn, Abbey, Christabelle or Aden. Was he in the wrong place? The wrong ball? No of course he wasn't, he recognized the pesky little students, and there were several grads as well. Shacklebolt got some punch for himself, and sat down sipping it, continuing to eye the students suspiciously. He knew that there would be some trouble. There always was one act of trouble in every dance that had happened at Hogwarts, and he looked forward to catching the people responsible in this one. He already had an idea for a detention ready.

Besides his mania for catching students who were causing trouble, he also didn't need anything else destroying his reputation. Already, his future as Headmaster waas dim and something bad happening now wouldn't exactly be good.

As Abbey stood in the doorway with Christy and her date, she spotted Headmaster Shacklebolt looking worried. Abbey tapped Christy on the shoulder. "Christy," she said. "Look over at Headmaster Shacklebolt. Do you think he's looking for us?" Abbey asked. "As far as I know, he's supposed to greet the champions at the ball, or something like that." Abbey shrugged, not knowing the quite order of how things were supposed to be done here.

Rosalie sat at a table watching other couples dance the night away. It was then she realized she didn't have a date, and didn't have a chance dancing with anyone too. She took another sip of her alcohol filled punched and watched the dancing of other people. She glanced over at the punch table. She saw students coming back for more and more drinks. The word had spilled that someone had spiked the punch. Every one seemed to enjoy it.

"I never really noticed that a lot of people enjoy alcohol at this school. she smiled. She glanced over at Eli with his date. She could see why Elijah adored her. She was very beautiful and graceful in her presence. She was a winning prize for any guy. She saw them kiss.
Don’t get jealous Rose. Don’t get angry, don’t get upset. There’s nothing you can do, nothing you can say, There’s nothing. Nothing at all.

She stepped out of the Great Hall only for a moment only to get some air. She took the rum out from the strap of her shoe, to pour some in her cup. Standing looking out the window, she gazed up at the stars.

Amelia had thought that when her lips connected with Elijah’s her mind would have gone into hyper-drive, the logic and rationale that usually dominated her actions rebelling against what she had just done. But as she leaned into the kiss and felt Elijah respond to her bold action, she found her mind blissfully clear. Where there was usually a rage of commands, lines upon lines of rules, and barriers to thinking outside the box, there was pure, unadulterated nothingness.

At first, her blank mind scared Amelia. Her subconscious scrambled to catch the falling grains of thought as they slipped away in the midst of the kiss, but after they had escaped she realized how much better off she was without it. Tonight, there were no exams, no one to impress – her mother might have begged to differ, but really, everyone either already had an opinion of Amelia or didn’t know her at all – and no reason to struggle. So instead, she allowed herself to forget who she was and the walls she had always kept up around herself, choosing to let herself fall.

Although Amelia had initiated the kiss, Elijah took very little time to catch up. She could feel the weight of his hand as he placed it on her waist, the heat of his hand passing through the silk of the gown’s bodice and crawling up Amelia’s torso to her chest and neck. She kept her fingers on his neck, her body taking full reigns now that her mind had checked out.

Instead of pulling away when the kiss lasted longer than she had originally anticipated, her fingers curled tighter around the muscles in Elijah’s neck and she let him take the lead, both because she hadn’t though much past the original contact and because she knew he had far more experience than she did in this arena. Amelia had kissed boys before, but none that had affected her in the way Elijah did. He was like a toxin to her, making her behave in a way that was completely out of character and out of her control.

As Elijah pulled away from the kiss and trailed the path of kissed down her neck, Amelia inhaled sharply, the touch of his warm lips shocking against her cold skin. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, catching a passing glimpse of the starry night sky before her lids fell again. The heat which had risen to her chest at Elijah’s original touch only intensified with his lips on her clavicle, then again on her neck, then her jaw. Her eyelids fluttered again just as she thought Elijah was going to arrive at her lips, in time to see Elijah smile for a moment before blowing warm air across her lips and face. If it was meant to tease her, it was working. Amelia’s entire body yearned from Elijah’s contact, a complete 180 from her usual avoidance of all human contact.

What has gotten into you? the small remaining part of her subconscious inquired, trying to prod a small bit of logic through the haze of feelings which were flooding Amelia’s mind and body, but it was to no avail. She was too far gone now.

Amelia blushed furiously at Elijah’s words, a demure smile crossing her face at his intimate flattery. She could tell that he wasn’t holding back now either, his compliments extending far beyond those one might hear from an escort making his obligatory statement about her appearance or charm.

If she had wanted to respond to what Elijah said, she didn’t have time, for she once again found his lips upon hers. This was just as well, she supposed, because her mind was not really in any position to be forming coherent sentences. She leaned as close to him as physics would allow without her falling into his lap. Though that didn’t seem like such a bad idea as Elijah’s kiss intensified, pulling her under once again.

Amelia had lost all sense of self by the time Elijah’s lips left hers for the second time, aware only of Elijah’s lips pressing against the pulse point in her neck, sure that he would feel the heavy heartbeat that pounded there and in her wrists, chest, and everywhere else. When he reappeared in front of her with a raised eyebrow it took her a moment to come back down to earth.

“Very,” Amelia replied breathlessly to Elijah’s comment, only able to manage a one-word answer at this point. Her mind was still reeling from what had just happened, slowly regaining some sense of coherent thought, but none of which was able to break through the fog of feeling which had taken up residence in her usually orderly and methodical mind.

Out of character and out of sorts, Amelia barely registered the dark-haired girl from before walking up the table. Embarrassed now at her boldness, Amelia became suddenly very interested in her fingernails as Elijah and the girl he had called Julia exchanged a few words. She wasn’t paying attention to the subject of their conversation, far to absorbed in what had just occurred, so when the brief exchange was over she had no comment about it.

“Could we maybe get some air? I’m suddenly feeling rather warm.” Amelia asked Elijah, her eyes darting up to him again after he had responded to the Julia, whose purple dress looked very becoming on her. It was not her intention to pull Elijah away from Julia – it was quite clear from the last few minutes that he possessed at least some attraction toward her, or was a very good actor – but she did need a chance to step back from the situation. Amelia was not ashamed of what had just happened, but she certainly could not explain it. Right now, what she needed was to get away from any potential scrutiny and figure of what was happening. She figured that anything that felt this good ought to have an explanation for it, but then again, Amelia believed everything had an explanation.

Amelia wasn’t sure that Elijah would accompany her to the balcony considering his ongoing prank, but either way she would need to step outside for a few minutes. With or without him, she needed to get away from the noise and the questioning glances which were beginning to be directed toward them from the ball guests who had not been otherwise distracted during Amelia’s sudden loss of self control.

Danny almost jumped when he saw Shacklebolt. "Crap...I hate that guy," he said truthfully almost showing irritance. Hopefully he wouldn't notice Danny but it'd be pretty hard since he was with a Champion of the tournament. ""Want me to go get some punch?"

"You aren't the only one..." Christabelle practically mumbled having spotted the headmaster when Abbey pointed him out. "Thanks for warning me Abbs." she said looking at her, "I think I need to go with you on that one." she said looking at him. "Abbey do you want some punch?" she asked looking at her.

Danny nodded almost hurridly. He knew he was still in immense trouble the Myrtle incident and he really didn't need drama right now. He just wanted to have a nice night and get through it with ease. "Alright then," he said smiling at Christy.

She looked at him and started walking away from the headmaster. "I really don't want have to even speak to him until I have to." she said still extremely upset about the truth serum incident that she didn't want to have to relive any time soon and a good bit of people didn't know about it and she preferred to keep it that way until it was a good time for her to bring it forth, even though there were rumors going around about it. "Besides I was kinda thirsty anyway."