The Hogwarts Ball!

For some reason Valentina was not surprised that Darren had no clue on what type of suit to buy, he looked like one of those types of boys who didn't really care what they were wearing as long as it was warm and comfortable.

"Well I think it looks lovely and the person who picked it out did a great job of it."

Smiling softly Valentina shrugged, she liked music, all music, she didn't really care what it was that she was going to be dancing to.

"And what would you have us listen to? More music from that vocaloid of yours." she grinned mockingly

Valentina grinned happily and she nodded her head, the issue was indeed resolved:

"Oh I found someone, she's very pretty and easy to contact, although she wasn't the one that you picked I am sad to say."

"Thank you very much. I had to stare quite a bit to decide which one I wanted." He did a bow jokingly, a ninety degrees one at that.

"Hey, hey. They have an excellent ballroom music. Cantarella. Awesome. You can really dance from that song..." He smiled.

"Naww it's okay. A successful career lady like you definitely know what is best for you and the company. It's business... Just business..."

"Anyway, heard how your sales in the muggle world took a beating?"

"I don't want to intrude, but if you insist..." he said. He followed her to her father. He felt nervous, but he didn't know why. Perhaps, it was because his friend was a girl and he was meeting her father. They were just friends, though, so he shouldn't be worried.

When they arrived at Cobalt's area. Airen extended his hand in a confident manner.

"Piacere (a pleasure) Professor Smith, I'm Airen Auditoren," he said.

Charlotte wondered a moment why Air seemed so nervous about being around her father, true there was some element of meeting your friends dad that was always a bit daunting, perhaps she was just reading him wrong, she was far from an expert after all.

"I insist! No friend of mine will be alone in this ball."

She said stubbornly and smiled as the two men stood by each other and waited for her father to speak to Air, no doubt he would be a little put off that she had brought him over, but, she didn't want to leave him on his own.

"So, do you like my dress Air?" she asked politely

Richard noticed that Briony was looking him up and down. For once he assumed it was because of the nice suit he was wearing and not for his body. Maybe both. It wasn't as if he hadn't done exactly the same thing to her when he'd seen her in her new dress. He smiled brightly as she gave him a kiss on the cheek and a brief hug. It had taken her a lot to do that in front of all of the students and it meant a lot to him. He chuckled a little bit at her suggestion,

"Well I have to admit that I do enjoy wearing suits without ties." he told her with a smile before winking, "So ties only on special occasions alright?"

Following his wife's example, Richard took up a goblet of red wine and sipped it a little to get a taste for it. He made a little bit of a face before selecting a different type of wine. Austrailians did not make good wine,

"Mmm well I'd love to dance with you tonight so that gets my vote." he said with a wink before chuckling, "Screw the rules?"

Airen looked at Charlotte. She was looked very pretty. His mouth curved into a gentle smile. Her emerald green dress definitely suited her house. He was a bit disappointed that they weren't in the same house, but that didn't mean they couldn't be friends.

"I do. E' bello (It's beautiful)" he said. Man, his Italian was acting up. Oh well. He was born and raised there, so it shouldn't surprise him.

"Thank you, you look quite handsome," Freya said, and Jake shifted uncomfortably when his suit was mentioned. He still wasn't used to the feel of it. He preferred his loose pants and cheap shirts... His leather jacket wasn't bad, either.

"Thanks. I'm glad my pain wasn't for naught," he said with a grin, gesturing for the suit. "I can think of eighteen different swear words to describe how uncomfortable this suit is. Not to mention the tie," he muttered, shaking his head. "I don't know how people can stand these events."

"Have you seen Michael or.. Samantha? I'm quite excited to meet his wife."

Jake shrugged. "I'm not even sure if he's coming or not," he admitted cluelessly.

"Hello Frank," Lolita said, blushing. "Thank you, I do try." As they stepped into the Hall, Frank had to marvel at how all-out the Headmistress had gone this time. It was marvelous. "You look very handsome today, I love your suit, what do you think of the hall?"

"Oh, thank you," Frank said when she mentioned the suit. It wasn't as uncomfortable as he'd originally thought it'd be, but it was still a bit uncomfortable. He looked around the hall again. "It looks rather splendid, doesn't it?"

Lolita smiled happily and she nodded, she agreed, the hall looked wonderful and it was just the right atmosphere for Lolita, not too busy yet not too quiet, it was just right for her. Casting her gaze around she noted all of the couples and sent a large smile at Cobalt who looked like he'd been fantastically airbrushed.

"It is wonderful."

When a muggle song came on, although Lolita didn't know it, she became compelled to dance and looked shyly at Frank.

"You want to dance with me?"

She hoped that he would, but the song seemed to be a fast one, so maybe he would want a slower paced one, after all, Lolita didn't picture Frank as the type for dirty dancing, or dancing of any type.

Valentina smiled a little bit when she saw that Darren bowed to her, it was really quite sweet and she didn't mind him acting the gentleman around her, hardly anyone ever did these days, apparently she was too stuck up.

"You can really dance from these song's too you know, you can dance to anything with a beat, it's just more challenging for people who aren't used to it."

Her eyebrow raised and she coughed slightly. That was not very nice.

"Thank you. For pointing that out to me. Like it's been pointed out to me by owl virtually every day."

Rolling her eyes Valentina took her drink and turned on her heel to leave Darren standing there.

"Well... Just picky I guess..." Darren shrugged and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw her turn and walk away.

"Hey..." He said gently as he caught up with her.

"I didn't mean to. I'm sorry... Hey..." He said apologetically, bowing his head a little.

Valentina looked around as Darren followed her and smiled softly, she let her shoulders relax slightly, even though she was a tad surprised that he had come after her at all.

"It's okay, I guess I'm just a little tense because of it. I don't want to be considered a failure you know."

She smiled slightly wider again.

"I get tense a lot. You'll get used to it."

"You're not, Valentina. You're not. If you're a failure, I'm beyond that degree already. So cheer up okay?" He said gently.

"You need a looong holiday. Very long. Thank god you're coming to Hogwarts." He smiled and took her to the table of drinks.

"Have a drink, come on. Lighten up."

Valentina smiled softly, she was glad that someone thought that she was doing a good job because quite a lot of people now didn't, but she supposed Darren was right, today was not the time to think on business it was to have fun.

"Haha, I'll try my best but it's hard to get out of that mind frame."

Shaking her head while laughing a little bit Valentina picked up a drink of cherryade and sipped it lightly with a sigh.

"Business follows me whereever I go, but it should be less here."

With a smirk Valentina gestured to the dance floor.

"You know what would help lighten me up? A nice dance with a nice boy?" she smirked slightly wider

Briony noted with an expression of interest the collar that Richard wore, she wondered what was the mentality behind this choice, was it some form of hint about what he wanted later tonight? She didn't know. But now with that thought in her head it was pretty darn hard to get out again.

"You don't ever have to wear ties if you don't want to my love, to be honest I really quite like the collar, maybe you should keep it on."

Winking at him for a moment Briony looked at the face her husband made when he was drinking the wine and she chuckled a little bit, it seemed as if he wasn't exactly happy with the elfs choice of wine for tonight.

"Was that not nice dear? You're face was so funny. Just tip it back. I'm only 22 I plan on getting totally smashed tonight. I'm allowed."

With a thumbs up in Richard's direction Briony picked up a glass of wine and downed it in one before pulling her husband out onto the dance floor with a large grin, she really did just want to have fun tonight and enjoy the fruit of her planning.

"Yeah, let's screw the rules."

"Good." He smiled, and his eyes widened a little when she asked him to dance. Sure, he could.. But he was terrible... But...

"Firstly, throw your work out the window just for tonight. Secondly, may I have the honour of dancing with you tonight, lady?" He bowed, and extended his hand, his face reddening a little.

Charlotte smiled at Air and she blushed a little bit, as she did when anyone complimented her, she just wasn't used to it and she liked being able to gain compliments now that she was mixing with other people that she didn't before.

"Thank you Air, I made it myself."

She said proudly before gesturing to the dance floor which already had a few couples on it.

"Would you like to dance with me tonight?"

Valentina grinned and she nodded her head, that wasn't going to be too hard after all she really didn't want to do any work tonight, and she would much prefer to just be an ordinary girl for the rest of the evening.

"Well that first ones done."

She said as she mimed throwing her work away.

"And that second option I would like very much to take you up on, but, you shouldn't blush, I might have a slip of the tongue and call it cute."

Smiling softly Valentina took Darrens hand in her own.

Airen bowed in an obnoxious way. He extended his hand graciously.

"Well then, my lady, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the dance floor," he said. His Italian accent making it sound more comical than it was.

"Evening Remy, am I allowed to have punch?"

I turned towards my long time friend, and gave her a look, should she be given punch? After all for all he knew it might have some sort of alcohol spiked in it.

"I guess Yasmine." I caved in. "But I'll be watching you."

Maybe watching her wouldn't be so bad, especially in that dress. Orange really suited her...

"Good! We can chuck it into that corner there." Darren pretended to kick it aside, and he coughed at her statement.

"Am not blushing!" He said defiantly, though his face was telling another story, and he shook his head, trying to recover his composure.

Taking her to the dance floor, he bowed, and with her hand in his, they slowly moved across the dance floor in the slow tempo music.

"Pray. If there was no music, I'd sing to you." He smiled, dancing, a slight blush on his face.

Valentina couldn't help but giggle at what Darren said and she smiled happily, she did feel a little better now that she had this interesting and amusing boy to take her mind off things for a while. Hopefully he'd stick around too.

"You're not? I think my eyes must be malfunctioning then. Maybe someone spiked the drinks."

She said with a chuckle and followed Darren to the dancefloor. As they began to dance Valentina blushed herself slightly, he was a wonderful dancer.

"I think it's safe to say you're a better dancer than I..."

With a slight coy smile Valentina inclined her head to one side: "And pray tell, what would you sing me?"

"Thanks. I'm glad my pain wasn't for naught. I can think of eighteen different swear words to describe how uncomfortable this suit is. Not to mention the tie. I don't know how people can stand these events."

Freya couldn't help but to simply laugh at what Jake was saying. Watching him talk about the suit and tie was quite amusing. And, she really couldn't help but to wonder if he actually had a list of eighteen words to describe how uncomfortable the suit was.

"Oh, come off it, love. I'm sure it's not really that uncomfortable. Plus, you look proper handsome in it, you do." She said as she kissed him on the cheek softly, her blush becoming slightly darker once more. "And you get used to these sort of events. I've been to worse.." She had remembered a lot of the events she had to attend as a model. Some involved drugs while other ones were just down right boring. The blond made sure she made a mental note the the drug ones were the worse. Unfortunately, even if she hadn't used in a couple of months, she still had to deal with the addiction that she didn't feed.

When Jake said that he wasn't sure that if Michael was coming or not, she frowned. Freya was quite looking forward to meeting the Potion Master's wife. After shrugging slightly, she walked over to the side of Jake and wrapped her arm around his before smiling, "well, shall we go into the Great Hall? I'm sure it looks lovely inside."

"Oh, come off it, love. I'm sure it's not really that uncomfortable. Plus, you look proper handsome in it, you do." Freya said and kissed Jake on the cheek with a blush that Jake only just now noticed. "And you get used to these sort of events. I've been to worse.."

That's right, Jake thought to himself, Freya used to be a model. She had to have attended lots of different parties, both calm and wild. The only parties Jake had been to were usually spent in pubs, trying to find someone to drink under the table.

Jake started searching for Michael. He really wanted to see his friend just as uncomfortable as he was. Then again, the bastard probably liked wearing suits... He was shaken from his thoughts when Freya hooked her arm around his. "Well, shall we go into the Great Hall? I'm sure it looks lovely inside."

"Let's," Jake said with a smile as he led Freya into the Great Hall. He had to admit, it looked vastly different now. It was amazing what magic could do. "Wow," he said with an impressed tone of voice.

Charlotte couldn't help but giggle in the over the top way in which Air asked her to dance but she took his hand gently and hoped that her hand wasn't too cold for him, after all, she didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable.

"Why yes I think I shall, what what." Charlotte joked back, making her accent notably more English

Stepping onto the dance floor Charlotte started to move across the floor with the slightly fast pace of the dance.

"Lets see how good your skills are."