End of Summer Party

Julia wasn't exactly 'excited' in attending the end of summer party, but it was something to dress up for. School parties weren't exactly Julia's forte, but if there was alcohol involved she was sure to attend. Ever since she began dating Arthur, alcohol faded into the background of her life, which was a good thing, of course, but she missed it. She missed having fun with her friends at a good party with some vodka or firewhiskey in her hand. There were always ways to have fun without abusing alcohol, but if she was being honest, but it was always a better time. Whenever she had a drink in her hand, she knew to be cautious, she never let herself go too badly when dealing with alcohol, because she knew of all the things that could happen to her whenever she was drunk.

Dismissing this topic from her thoughts, Julia approached the party area, which was caressed with colourful lanterns and decorative tables, which were filled with delicious looking treats and drinks of many different colours. She knew that there wouldn't be any alcohol provided, anyways. The air was thick and hot, in spite of the sun already setting. A light breeze picked up Julia's hair and played around it for a little while, before the air became still and the heat returned. The breeze felt good, though it was warm, it made her feel relaxed even though she wasn't at all anxious.

However, when she thought of anxiety, Julia's stomach twisted and churned when a picture of Zakk appeared in her head. She wasn't sure if Arthur was attending the party, they hadn't been speaking to one another in some time, she didn't know the reason for this, but she felt like she needed time away from him. He wasn't trouble at all to her, he was great, but her feelings had changed a bit about him the day that she hung out with Zakk at the bookstore that day. She was pretty sure that Zakk was coming to the party, that was mainly why she hoped Arthur wouldn't come, which made her feel uneasy because she didn't know what to do if they both came. The tension would be horrible, and the expected jealousy that would rise from both of them would only make it worse. If she was going to be honest with herself, she really wanted to be with Zakk at the moment.

Julia's mood enlightened when she saw Sophia, but she was with a boy now, and she didn't want to pull her away from that. Instead, she found Elijah, surrounded in somewhat of a triangle with two other girls. One of them stood out like a sore thumb, though her backside was facing Julia, she could immediately tell who it was. The only person who would be stupid enough to wear a transparent dress, though her important body parts were covered by patches of dark fabric. Why was Eli with Suzannah Malfoy? She thought that he disliked her, but, when she was wearing a dress like that one, why wouldn't he be with her? As much as she hated it, Julia continued to Elijah's little group, she would ignore Suzannah as much as she possibly could. As she got closer, Julia noticed the other girl had brown hair and a purple dress on, something much more modest compared to the Queen of Hearts beside her. She didn't recognize the girl's name, but she remembered seeing her in the hallways at school.

"Hey Eliiiiijah" Julia giggled, it has been a while since she said Eli's name that way, it brought back fun memories. "How are you?" She asked him before turning to the brunette and smiling. "Hi I'm Julia" She extended her hand to the girl. Julia nodded in the direction to Suzannah, not wanting to begin a conflict with her... at the moment. "Is anyone having fun yet?" She laughed, joking.

Spoiler:

Julia's Outfit and Look

Sophia Lestrange wrote:" Thankyou Lucas."said Sophia in a cold dull voice for she was disappointed that he left her without even telling her where he went. Sophia looked at him as her eyes flasjed orange at him meaning she was upset. "You have every right to be, I thought we were falling together but now werre falling apart for I fallen for someone else."said Sophia softly. "I'm sorry, I'm just to upset to talk to you right now Lucas excuse me."said Sophia softly as she excused herself. Looking around the crowd for Samantha and Keegan she really neededd to talk to them it always helped her calm down.

Lucas felt hurt that she replied in a cold voice. She was definetely hurt and no doubt was saying 'I'm Sorry' going to fix anything, he wasn't expecting it to fix everything and make everything alright anyways. He gulped and felt like he couldn't swallow.

He felt like he couldn't even tell her where he's been or his side of the story. He really had a legitimate excuse for being away suddenly. But she didn't understand because he hadn't finished telling her of his past.

Lucas' eyes turned orange and he really just wanted to cry and blame himself. It was his fault. He had every right to blame himself for hurting such a beautiful, innocent girl. He watched her excuse herself and turned away from her and looked up into the sky and sniffled.

He couldn't resist it, so he faced the crowd and his eyes quickly welled up with tears and he blinked quickly and repeatedley and then there were lots of tears rolling down his cheek. He tried to stop, for he is a guy but couldn't. His past made him weak.

Skeeter strolled into the meadow that housed the party, and put his large hands into his pockets. He had dressed causal-formal for this little shindig. He had never been one for trying to impress anyone but now that he had met his fellow Aurors, he was excited to make them look good if he could.

Of course, that did not mean he was going to go all out. Robert and a few of them had explained that they were all pretty casual, of which Skeeter was very relieved. He took pride in his appearance and he even spent quite a time putting his outfits together. But he was the one that deliberated a long time to see what look made him look as though he did not care, and yet he still looked great...

It was pretty obvious Skeeter really needed to get a life.

He walked in and walked over to the punch bowl and poured himself some of the colorful juice. He walked a short way away and stood, sipping at the punch, watching the happy dancing of the people on the dance floor. A smile tugged at his lips.

Elliot had not dressed up for this thing. He was wearing clothes he would wear on a normal basis, barely noticing the fact that he was under dressed. He had not known he would be attending this little ordeal until an hour prior. Otherwise, he would have made sure to borrow some money from his no good father.

He had received an owl a few hours ago, made late by some troubles finding him, from his cousin Jack saying she would be attending. Ever since then, he had felt uneasy about the party he had never planned on attending. He felt as though there was something there that would hurt Jack. It did not help that he was rather protective of her, in his own passive ways, so he had grudgingly made himself make a public appearance.

And now that he was here... he could not see Jack anywhere. It made his unease grow deeper for a moment, and then he began to doubt himself. What was he worried about anyway? The party looked boring, to Jack's standards anyway, seeing as there was nothing exploding. She had probably left early.

That meant that he was stuck here then... He sighed to himself and walked over to the food table, piling an assortment of finger foods onto a plate before walking over to a table. Within a few minutes the food was gone, and he sat there, his sad, usually distant eyes searching the crowd like a hawk, feeling as though he needed to spot danger as soon as he could.

((Julia, for the record, Amelia’s hair is strawberry blond, not brown. I was confused who you were referencing there until you mentioned the purple dress.))

In the midst of Amelia’s punch-drunk inspection of Elijah, she had failed to notice the way his eyes had lingered on Suzannah. It was probably for the best that she had not seen the way his eyes had crawled over the blond girl, for that may have been the King of Hearts that knocked down the card tower that was holding Amelia at this party in the first place. With such a fragile grasp on her own reasons for attending the party, Elijah’s wandering eyes may have set her off enough to leave without so much as a goodbye to her parents or her date.

As it was, though, Amelia only became aware of what Elijah was looking at when his eyes were once again directed at her, for she immediately felt them on her and tore her own away from the taller boy’s lips, where her eyes had been lingering. She could tell from his expression that she had been caught – which should have come as no surprise. She was hardly being discreet about it – and his raised eyebrow sent pinches of color rising to her cheeks.

Elijah, however, seemed not to have minded her staring and was unabashed in doing some of his own. It was impossible to hold still as Elijah raked his eyes across her body, and heat followed where his gaze lingered longest. The Ravenclaw girl could feel warmth blooming in her lower abdomen, a sensation she had never experienced, and fidgeted involuntarily under his intense gaze. She tucked an invisible piece of hair behind her ear, twisted the bangles on her wrists, anything she could to distract herself from the fact that she was slowly losing her grip on sanity, and all because Elijah was staring at her.

Stop it. Stop it. STOP IT!

Amelia’s mind was shouting for her to cease this foolishness, to snap out of it and act like a functioning human being, but it wasn’t until Suzannah spoke and Elijah looked away that she was able to clear her mind even slightly, and that was only after she shook it to dissipate some of the dreadfully improper thoughts she had been harboring.

She found it difficult to focus on the question Suzannah had asked, especially since it hadn’t been asked of her. If the curvaceous blond has asked Amelia the same question, she would have been forced to analyze her thoughts and order them in such a way that she could answer both succinctly and vaguely. As it was, though, Amelia’s mind was still wandering slightly when Elijah’s response came, though it had not gotten so far away that she missed the intention glance Elijah had given her, making her thoughts once again dissolve into an embarrassingly schoolgirl like disarray.

Can you at least look like you aren’t giddy at the mere action of him looking at you? Amelia’s subconscious demanded, which kept her face mostly plaintive as Elijah returned the question and another girl approached. Amelia was still attempting to focus on keeping her feelings under wraps for a few seconds more while the second girl approached them, and it wasn’t until she spoke that Amelia’s eyes turned to her and the Ravenclaw was able to discern who had come to join them.

It was the way that Julia had said Elijah’s name that made her easily recognizable, for Amelia hadn’t come in any kind of formal contact with her for quite some time. The two of them had been briefly introduced – or was it that Amelia had merely observed to the point that it felt like she knew Julia? – at the Yule Ball this past year, where she, Elijah, and another girl had been plotting something, though what it had been Amelia had never found out. From the way Julia introduced herself, though, it seemed she had forgotten the encounter.

Not exactly surprising, Amelia thought to herself, not in self-pity, but more in a matter-of-fact way, When you work this hard to be anonymous, you can’t exactly blame people for falling for the act.

Amelia was beginning to feel slightly intimidated by the abundance of female presence surrounding herself and Elijah, especially considering the feelings which were rising unprompted from within her. Despite this, Amelia knew that extracting herself from the situation wasn’t exactly a possibility. She had agreed to come to the party with Elijah, and additionally, there was a part of her that didn’t want to leave Elijah with two attractive girls that didn’t seem at all opposed to his company. As that part was not as rational, however, Amelia told herself that she would stay out of formality, rather than feeling.

“I’m Amelia,” the redhead responded as she took Julia’s hand, fighting the urge to respond with ‘I know.’ This would have highlighted the fact that they had already been introduced, but it seemed frivolous at the moment to cause even more awkwardness than she was naturally capable of.

“As far as fun,” she added, somewhat hesitant to comment on exactly how she was feeling about the party, mostly because she hadn’t quite been able to explain it even to herself, “It seems rather touch and go. Those two seem to be enjoying themselves,” Amelia commented, nodding her head in the direction of a Hufflepuff couple she recognized only by sight, both of them seemingly elated beyond description.

“But he,” Amelia added, this time nodding toward a tan, dark-haired boy with tears rolling down his cheeks, “looks like this just isn’t his night.”

There. A sufficient answer that has nothing to do with you. It’s good to see there is still some semblance of your rationality that remains Elijah-proof, Amelia’s subconscious logic quipped, still sore from being outsmarted earlier.

(Oops, sorry Amelia )

The air felt as if it were thinning out, which felt great partnered with the breeze, though Suzannah could tell that soon it would get fairly chilly once the sun was completely out of sight and the moon began it's shift. Not only could she feel the air, but she could feel many eyes boring into her entire body, it felt great to be at the center of attention, it had been her reasoning in wearing her lace dress. The dress had, obviously, a nude-coloured slip beneath the lace fabric to cover up the various areas of transparency. Suzannah was not aware that one of those pairs of eyes had, indeed, been Elijah's. As she realized this, she could feel the jealousy and tension radiating off of Amelia. Suz had not meant for Amelia to be jealous, or for Elijah to stare at her, but it simply was not her fault. What man wouldn't have their eyes on her in the dress?

It was obvious that Amelia had dismissed Suzannah's question from her mind, though it had been directed to Elijah. The way Amelia was acting at the moment made Suz extremely irritated. Elijah merely glanced at her, and she was acting as if she were the one wearing the lace. She wanted to tell her to calm down or something of the sort, but she didn't want to give Amelia the wrong idea.

She was about to begin a new conversation when she heard the sound of heavy footsteps, stilettos, perhaps? She wasn't sure, but she knew it was another female. She turned her head as she heard a familiar voice introducing herself, and felt a sudden flutter of anger as she heard the girls name. Why the hell is Julia Traverse here? She thought Doesn't she have enough common sense to stay away from me? In that moment, Suzannah's night had already been ruined. She had nodded back with a sour expression on her face to Traverse, she would definitely have a talk with her afterward.

If it wasn’t for the fact that his presence was necessary at the party then Elijah never would have been attending. But then again, he wasn’t one to stand up a date. Elijah’s attention had been diverted slightly. He left the women to silently bicker among themselves with fleeting looks and his eyes drifted over to the male Veela attempting to seduce a rather needy male. It was an odd sight. The Veela, Selwyn in this case which disturbed Elijah anyway, was doing the chasing and the other one was completely submitting. There was something incredibly wrong with that. Elijah had never come across a Veela that wanted his company because usually it was the other way around but even so, he knew that you had to make the Veela work. You had to make it want you more. It didn’t matter what the gender of said Veela was.

To have a Veela for a lover was like trying to keep Henry VIII interested in one woman at a time. You needed to keep them on a short leash and sell yourself to make the need even greater. Veela were possessive by nature, all you had to do was manipulate that. Whoever this guy was, he was failing spectacularly. He’d either not had the attention of someone in a long while or he was completely instantly besotted and was now reduced to a bumbling mess. The latter and the former were both equally likely and Elijah was having trouble deciding which one it was. He was putting his money on the first one but perhaps the roles were reversed usually so the male in question had no clue how to hold himself. The entertainment for Elijah was priceless.

Part of the Bulgarian wanted to see if he himself could rustle the other man’s feathers even more than Selwyn already was by giving him some added attention. But the more rational side had already decided to keep his feet firmly on the ground. He was a pureblood, a Slytherin and the last thing in the world he wanted to do was ruin his self-made reputation for his own amusement. He was a sweet talker but Elijah honestly couldn’t see him talking himself out of that one. So, it was for that reason that Elijah remained where he was yet he continued to the words being exchanged between the two men with interest. For some reason ‘Danny-Boy’ was sure Selwyn was in love with him. That was more proof that he had never encountered a Veela before. Unless they found their mates then they only wanted one thing and Elijah enjoyed that immensely if he managed to gain the interest of one of them after a bit of chasing.

There was something in the air tonight or perhaps it was in the drink. The problem with that was that Elijah hadn’t had a drink yet so his assumptions couldn’t have been correct. Maybe the lace had just gone to his head. The lace was like a key to sexual fantasies and the safe had been abruptly opened letting everything spill out. It was like Pandora’s Box except filled with things he liked. When that was opened, all hell broke loose. Usually though, it was only within his mind and thankfully that remained to be seen. The Slytherin’s hand went to his pocket and he reached inside to retrieve his cigarettes. As he did so, a familiar voice reached his ears and he turned to see Julia approaching. He smiled at her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Good, exceptional even. Cigarette?” He took his own from the packet and held the packet out for her if she decided to take one. He lit the cigarette with ease and looked around again, his drifting back to Selwyn. He smirked a little to himself and looked back at the girls.

Elijah took the cigarette from his mouth. He held it down beside him and pulled his lips together to form an ‘O’, allowing the smoke to escape. He ran his other hand through his hair and glanced back at Suzannah. He doubted that a Malfoy would take a cigarette but nethertheless he turned his wrist so he was pointing the packet to her in case. In his defence it wasn’t as if they were cheap. His mother hated the habit but she’d already decided that if he was going to smoke something then it had to be the best in the market. She was useful ... maybe. Well, when his mother wasn’t trying to marry him off to someone or convince the house elves to mix his underwear with a red shirt while washing...yeah, she was useful.

“Right,” He said decisively. “I’m going to go to the bar. What does everyone want?” Ah yes, when all else failed get completely sloshed with your date, your best friend and the girl wearing lace.

Belle had decided to leave Andrian to his own devices for sometime and began going through the crowd when she spotted someone she had not spoken to in some time and decided she would stop and say hello.

She waited until he was finished asking what everyone wanted to drink and then tapped Eli on the shoulder. "I do hate to interupt but I couldn't help but stop and say hello."

As her comments seem to have no rebuttal, Amelia felt that they had hung awkwardly in the air. Her inability to say anything even remotely conversational seemed to have left a silence between the group, for Suzannah was staring in stony silence at Julia, Elijah seemed to be staring off into space, and Julia hadn’t made any response at all.

That is what you get for being out of practice… Amelia’s mind chastised her, sounding eerily and annoyingly like her mother’s voice. Amelia knew it was an embarrassing facet of her personality, the fact that she could hold a conversation about as well as a cracked bucket held water, but it seemed every time she made an attempt at improvement, she fell flat.

Apparently the lack of interesting exchange had not been missed on Elijah’s part, because it didn’t take him long to start fishing inside his pockets, coming back shortly with a pack of cigarettes. Involuntarily, Amelia wrinkled her nose at the sight of them, though she smoothed her face back to normal a moment later. Amelia thought smoking to be a foul habit, and immediately disliked the idea of Elijah having it.

The Slytherin boy offered one to Julia, and then to Suzannah, but must have known better than to offer one to Amelia, who never would have accepted. She looked away as Elijah lifted the cigarette to his lips, slowly coming back into her logical state of mind as smoke rings began to fill the air.

It was hard to distract herself from the situation, though, especially when yet another girl came up to Elijah. Although Amelia knew Belle to be married, it was still yet another person with which to make small talk, another person with whom she would probably struggle to communicate. Starting to feel overwhelmed with what was being asked of her socially, Amelia was beginning to look for an escape. Scanning the crowd meant seeing a lot of faces she could identify, but not many that would offer her any reprieve from the demands of social interaction. Finally, though, her eyes landed on a familiar face at a table on the opposite side of the dance floor, and immediately Amelia felt relief spreading through her.

“I think I’ll actually get something for myself,” Amelia replied to Elijah’s offer, keeping her response polite despite her growing ambition to remove herself from this pressure-filled situation. With her dismissal noted, Amelia removed herself from the circle that had formed around Elijah and walked briskly past the dance floor, the hem of her dress dancing around her legs as she moved quickly to the bar. Once there, she asked the bartender for a glass of cranberry juice, which she took with her as she moved toward her intended target.

Raoul was sitting at a table by himself, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. If it had been another, Amelia might have thought him to be sleeping, but in their brief encounter at the bookstore Amelia had come to realize that Raoul and she shared some tendencies, including the one that encouraged them to block out the world at times. This is what she had guessed he was doing when she saw him, so she quietly slipped into the chair next to him with her glass, crossing her legs and looking intentionally away from the group she had just left, to keep her mind off of it at least for a few minutes.

“I hope I’m not intruding,” Amelia said softly, in such a way that Raoul could pretend not to have heard her if he so chose. In truth, she just wanted the presence of someone who would not make demands of her socially, but would remove the requirement for her to return quickly to Elijah and his gaggle of admirers. Raoul was a unique type of individual who was almost as accustomed to and okay with silence as Amelia was, which was just the ticket she was looking for at this moment.

The air was thin, but the sky was dark, definitely a muggy night for a school party. Usually, Becca never attended school events, but Suzie was going, and she had convinced Becca to go. She was wearing one of her favorite black sequined dresses with a turquoise bow at the waist, it made her stand out, which was a great choice for an event like this with plenty of single boys. Though none of the boys here would be good enough to even have a dance with her, the males from Hogwarts were always so slouchy and obnoxious; definitely not her type.

As she waltzed through the entryway, she could already smell the stench of salty sweat from people's faces from all the dancing and humidity. She could never wear this dress again after that night. She stood at the edge of the tables for a moment, watching everyone dance and have a great time. She remembered those days, when she didn't care what people thought and let her makeup fall off with a good time; she would never risk her reputation by doing that anymore. Most people call that "having fun", but Becca called it "being immature". There were many differences between having a good time and being immature, and that was one of them; dripping in sweat and yelling loudly was simply rude to those around them and certainly couldn't have been fun once they sat down and their heads were sticky and their throats hurt.

Rebecca saw many people that she knew, though not many that she truly liked. She waved to some people and smiled, being as polite as she could, and dabbed her forehead with the back of her hand. Ew She thought. Even she was beginning to sweat. Now would be a great time to grab a drink. She walked over to the bar and ordered a firewhiskey, walking past a few people that she recognized, but didn't exactly talk to. She spun around on her heel and peered around the area, searching for the familiar blonde. It wasn't long until she saw the lacy black dress attached to the slender body of Suzannah Malfoy. It was a great dress, but she would never wear it, but only because her best friend was seen in it. She started forward toward the girl and tapped her shoulder. "Hey Suzie" She said with a giggle.

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