And step to the left and to the right. Jonathan danced with Kurumi for the first time. "of course" he laughed softly as she asked the question. This was actually nice rather than those countless times where he danced in a party that he barely even knows his own partner. Now that was a bit boring but not this one though. This was more fluid than he had expected it to be. "Told you Waltz was simple." he said. Yeah, and she said she couldn't dance it.

Fall asleep? Are those the ones in like those Kabuki plays or something like that? Jonathan has been to Japan when he was a child but he never really got a good glimpse of the country. Andy showed him around but not that much. he did, however, remember eating tempura that day. That's still delicious. "Oh?" he raised an eyebrow "learn it?" he smiled.

Kurumi giggled softly. "I am only following your lead," she smiled, looking up at him. She lost focus for a moment and stumbled a bit, making sure to miss his foot, and caught herself on his shoulder. Oops, at least she hadn't fallen on her face or something. She looked up at him sheepishly and recomposed herself, hand back on his collarbone, other hand in his, and leaned her cheek against his chest. This was kind of nice. A lot better than she thought it was going to be.

"The fan dances can be kind of long," she laughed. "You might get bored watching me wave it around after awhile." Yeah, she saw that eyebrow raise and couldn't help but laugh a bit. "Yep, a very traditional one. It's active, so you shouldn't get to bored of it. It's all part of a festival in my hometown."

She swayed a bit more in rhythm with the music and returned her head to resting against his chest. The waltz was too bad, if things were just stepping left and right.

Jonathan chuckled. It's true that she is following his lead but she can't really say that she can't dance. She's actually good at this. But before he could compliment her, Kurumi suddenly stumbled but caught onto his shoulder. Jonathan caught her by the arm though. "Are you okay?" he asked. What did she step on anyway? Or must have been her long kimono right, no? At least she didn't fell. Jonathan continued to sway as she rested her chin on his chest.

Hearing Kurumi talking about dancing with fans, Jonathan smile. Yeah, it does really sound like a traditional dance. Jonathan remembered it once when his uncle got married and he had to perform a dance as well. Took him weeks to actually learn it because he usually skips the classes and go somewhere. So he's a bit worried with this one. Hoping he wouldn't be much as stubborn to learn it. "sounds... fun" he laughed softly as Kurumi tried to explain it.

"So am i allowed to bring Nobi then?" he teased. There's always a 50-50% chance that his father would definitely tell him to bring Nobi.

"Perfect, actually," she giggled as Jonathan's arms caught her from whatever disaster may have fallen upon her. She could blame her kimono and how restricted it made her movements, but the fan dances she had to perform required a lot more movement than they were doing right now. So, nope, she had just stumbled over her own feet. "I don't see why you don't want to dance more often. You're really good at it," she teased, reaching up to poke his cheek with her finger - which required some standing on her tip toes and was rather difficult with her kimono shoes.

"I hope you enjoy it," she smiled. Performing the dance with the rest of her village was one of the only times during the year that she actually felt like she belonged and was a part of something. That she was accepted. MERLIN! She would need to buy him a yukata. She should probably leave that to her brothers, they were boys after all. "It's really not too difficult to learn either. Those dances from Muggle Studies are more difficult."

Her face froze for a moment and she looked up at Jonathan. Yeah, he was smirking and she was tempted to poke his cheeks again. "Erm...I'm not sure," she said with a nervous smile. There really was no telling what her mother would do if there was a house elf in the house. But it would probably involve a frying pan or worse. "Can he...make himself invisible?" Because if he could do that they might be able to work something out.

Jonathan laughed. "That's funny." when she commented about him dancing. Jonathan doesn't really like to dance, especially not in public. It was something he usually do when he's practicing for a party... as long as it was danced with not too many people. Plus, he doesn't really know the people his parents know, so he doesn't really give attention to the crowd. But he'd perform a piano piece in front of everyone. It's more serene that way. Unlike dancing.

Difficulty was not something Jonathan is really worried of. He was actually been told that he can learn a dance quickly and memorize it step by step but the problem with Jonathan is that "I don't know how to say this but" he looked at Kurumi half smiling quite ashamed that he's actually admitting this for the first time "I'm the most stubborn person I know" yeah, and it goes way back too. Learning hangul, dancing traditional dances, wearing a hanbok, talking to his grandparents, bowing at his relatives. It may sometimes come out as mean. "My father gave up teaching me a lot of things from his culture because of that" he's trying to laugh because he's very embarrassed talking about it. Jonathan is an only child so maybe that's why he does have that stubborn personality.

Yeah, that wasn't a good thing to share since he always have this good boy image to Kurumi. So probably right now he's sounding like a real Slytherin.

If his father knew that it would be a muggle village then maybe he'll be permitting not bring Nobi? "He's small. I don't think people would actually notice him" he chuckled.

"Why is it funny?" she asked, slightly pouting her lips. Was only he allowed to compliment her but she couldn't compliment him? That certainly wasn't fair. He was the one always telling her that she needed to learn how to accept people's praise, yet here he was being all smug...or something. "I was being serious." More slightly playful pouting. "We should do this more often." And maybe the next time she could be in heels so that she didn't have to strain her neck to look at him? Which meant that she needed to do some serious practice in the meantime.

She blinked a few times as his face grew serious. Despite the smile he was putting on Kurumi could tell that it was something that was difficult for him to talk about. His cheeks were not puffing up like they did when he was happy was the obvious give away. So, Jonathan was OCD and stubborn. At least she knew that he wasn't perfect, because that was all that she had really seen from him. "Well all have things about ourselves we are not proud of," she said, lifting her hand to touch his cheek. "I have self confidence issues, among other things, but at least you recognize that side of you, right?" She frowned when he mentioned his father giving up teaching things because of Jonathan's stubborn streak. This was probably good for her to know seeing as there would be a time when she would have to deal with it.

She would have stood on her tipy toes to kiss his cheek, just to let him know that it didn't make her think any less of him, but she didn't want to risk stumbling again. Her hand on his cheek would have to deliver that message for her.

"I think...my mother would notice," she said with a small smile. "She has a nose for finding magical things when they shouldn't be in the home." Once again, the image of her mother chasing a helpless house elf around the house with a frying pan entered her mind.

"Because I'm really not that good." he shook his head. "Not to be modest too." Jonathan was confident in some skills but he couldn't take praise from something he's not really good at. Then when Kurumi said she was serious, Jonathan stopped smiling. "Thank you. It's good that think I'm a good dancer, even though I'm not that good" he mumbled that last part. He doesn't really think of himself as a person who can dance without practice or without someone teaching him that is. Unlike some people that has the talent to really dance.

Kurumi was right about the issues each person has. Jonathan was not an exemption to that rule. Everyone does have certain insecurities that they are not proud of. It's part of life. "Yeah... my father said that too" about him being stubborn. Jonathan held her hand that was on his cheek. He bent down and kissed her forehead. Then she hugged her. He doesn't know why but somehow hugging her made it feel all right.

Jonathan smiled. Okay, so maybe someone will notice Nobi. There's a possibility her brothers would notice too which would be even a bad thing. "So I'm not really allowed to use magic..." which was suppose to be something he shouldn't say out loud to Kurumi. But it would be cool to have a summer with no magic at all... How would Jonathan really do stuffs without using magic?

Kurumi couldn't help it, but she giggled at his response to her compliment. "Is this you being stubborn?" she teased, sticking her tongue out playfully at him. Kurumi still thought that he was better than he was giving himself credit for, but she really didn't have much to compare him too. Still, he was leading her around the dance floor and she had only stumbled once. "You're good enough to make me look good." Which was the role of the lead in these partner dances, right? At least she thought that she had read that somewhere.

She smiled a bit. "Well, now you know that your father isn't the only one who thinks such things about you." Jonathan did always seem to get a bit squirmish when it came to what his father thought, so maybe it would make things seem better that she thought the same thing. She was about to say more on that when he leaned down towards her and she felt her heart race. The moment his lips touched her forehead some of her hair went pink and it turned a slightly deeper shade when he hugged her, his hand holding the one that had been on his cheek.

Once again...his face was RIGHT THERE and she found herself turning to look towards him and she pressed her lips together awkwardly for a moment. Should she just...lean a little further and kiss him? They hadn't ever shown that sort of gesture in public, so she wasn't sure how he would react. How she would react. How...Salander would react. Instead of doing anything, she just looked at him, flicking her gaze between his eyes and his lips.

But then he spoke again and she had to look at his nose in order to be able to speak properly without sounding too flustered. "Yeah...mother doesn't even want wands in the house, but father has been able to convince her to let us at least keep them..."

João grinned at her as she promised this would be better. Well, he had no worry that she would be any worse than the lessons. And, after a few steps, he saw that she had indeed got better. Relieving a little, he let her dictate the dance as they conversed.

Oh, that was an obvious question... "On Brasília, my homeland. I'm fully Brazilian, Louisa, and that will never change despite the foreign countries I've lived in." She should get that fact about him clearly: he was fully Brazilian and he was proud of it. He would never change that. "How about you?"

Brasilia being Brazil, right? Yep, probably. She nodded her head smiling, and then went back to watching her steps and her dress.. falling on the dancing floor miiiight be problematic with such a dress, right? Right. "France. Even though I never lived there, I just was born in Paris, my mom's hometown." Louisa looked up at him and continued, " They went there, you know. My family.." Her smile hid the bitterness of her smile, "..during Christmas but I didn't want to go even if I'm dying to see what did the city I was born in look like. I just don't want to do it with people I don't really appreciate." Heh.

Another song was played and she slowed their moves a bit, matching the slow beat. "You see that Carter boy we just.. bumped into?" Yes, that was relevant to their conversation, "I don't always appreciate his comments but he gave me hope somehow and unintentionally." Looking over Joao's shoulder blankly, "Like.. there is truly a Carter family out there. A magical one, too. That was what I needed to believe in a Carter father. I didn't even know that before I met the boy." Even if meeting him wasn't so fancy and goodie.

"me too" replied Maddy, as she danced some more. Maddy wondered if sky was from the muggle world as well since she had not asked what an Ipod was. Maddy looked around the room, admiring the otherworldly decorations "this is an awesome theme" Maddy said.

France? João's eyebrows were raised at that. This was a whole new information about her that made him smile... that was very short lived. He sighed at her words, weighing his about the topic. Such family matters were very delicate topics and if he wasn't careful, he might infuriate her again which would be very ugly. It was just his luck that he had girlfriends whose families and/or lives were problematic. Although he did like Louisa, she was sometimes way too deep.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Louisa," he said softly, delicately, with a soft look in his eyes. Paris wasn't his particulary favourite, he found there boring and too arrogant, but that wasn't the right thing to say now. Pondering what else to say, for the first time in his life, he found himself in a complete loss for words. There wasn't really anything else to be added, and the song had come to an end... so that meant they could talk about something else, right?

"Yes..?" No, he didn't want to talk about such obvious idiots at this beautiful night with her. Wait, he gave her some hope?! He stopped moving to the song for a moment, completely perplexed by her words and watching her intently to see what was coming after that.

Although his mouth was completely shut, he did took a step backwards and took a very good, long look at her.

"You... I don't think you would want to be related to him." NO. NO WAY. If she was, he was breaking up with her right now. Taking another deep breath, he continued on after the initial shock. "I understand your... desire for a magical family, Louisa, but obviously you just have to do with being a Muggleborn. At least your father wanted that. There are some families you would just want to avoid." And Joshua Carter's being one of them.

Louisa stopped moving too and her arms stayed stretched onto the air for a few seconds as he retreated slowly. WHY WAS HE DOING THIS? She froze in her place, confused until he spoke.

Related to him? She shrugged, "I don't really care about relating to him or not. It's just the name he carries. I never felt... a proud Carter before." And that boy had this smug aura about him that gave her pride. But then João had more to say and she shut the emotions from playing on her face that fell instantly.

"He didn't want a muggleborn life for me because he never saw me.." Emphasizing on the words, "..I even doubt that he knew my mother was pregnant when he decided to just take off!" Her voice was low and calm, she didn't want to ruin the night.

"And I'm not taking that last sentence as an offense to my family; Carter, but I will.. the next time you say it." No. That wasn't a threat.

She didn't care?! So it wouldn't matter to her if she was related to that scumbag?! João blinked, unable to breathe for a moment. He knew she felt different about the adventages of a noble family name, but he had failed to realise before that they thought this differently on the subject. She even called it proud to have the unlikely possibility of being from the same family as that idiot. She was proud because... there wasn't even a because! She was obviously attracted to the silliness of the boy.

"I see," was all he could tell, and although he tried to keep his neutral expression, she probably could have guessed he had exactly the opposite of her opinion on this subject.

And to think she was proud for a father that didn't even know she existed!

He almost felt lucky for having a mother that never wanted him but nevertheless took care of him when his father was away on duty. And he had always been grateful for his IQ level, which, as always, proved to be higher than most of the people. She was proud for a father that left her. Really wise.

"I reckon the chances of your relation is very low. As far as I know, there are many Carters in England... so it wasn't an insult to your family in the first place." But if she kept on talking nonsense like that, it would well turn into an insult to her.

"Shall we... take a stroll on the grounds?" Maybe fresh air would bring her around.

This thing about the countries and stuff had been pretty cool by far and Nikolas didn't hesitate to go and join everyone else. He made his way to the tent with his "costume" which was not a costume but his Liverpool jersey, shorts and scarf. Mhm, showing his true colours. He entered and wandered around feeling proud wearing his Liverpool jersey because it was the best team.

He went to the dance floor where a couple of students were already there, he hummed to the music while he waited for Jade to come. She better hurry up.

..huh? What was this 'I see'? Louisa's brow furrowed as she tried to decipher the words. There was nothing to be understood from her words, really. Joao was just overthinking this and it worried her. But she didn't comment, he'd say something so convincing as always and they'd end up in one of those useless discussions.

With an impatient and rather annoying sigh she nodded, "Yeah, I'm aware of that. I already asked him about his father and he said he was a muggle. Happy?" Shooting the last word at the boy for no necessary reason other than the fact that she was disappointed by Josh's answer. She reckoned that her magical Carter father could be tracked via the lion's lineage but apparently there was not a chance for that.

The fifteen year old passed a hand through her wavy hair, nervously, and nodded, "Yeah... that'd be good." Because apparently she was tensed and fresh air woul freshen her up.

Holding her dress, she started descending the dance floor not wanting him to hold her hand the way he did when they came up first - not because she was mad at him, but she didn't want him to be gentle, which might trigger the guilty feeling.

His father was a Muggle whereas it was sure that hers was a wizard... a great stone was taken away from his shoulders. For a moment--no, for a long, horrendous moment he thought he liked the wrong girl--but no, although her ideas were still of no sense, it wasn't like he'd marry her that they posed an immediate threat. Her family name still mattered though, and she was of a clean family. So far.

Phew!

"Well, apparently it disappointed you," he said, being fully diplomatic, not denying or accepting his happiness. But really, SHE should be the happiest that she wasn't related to him. Nodding, he was to offer his hand again, obviously in a more cheerful mood, when she started descending the stage by herself. Going after her, he gently touched her shoulder and offered his hand for her to take.

"Where shall we go, senhorita?" Somewhere where she would calm down and be able to show her Ravenclaw mind, prefably.

His touch made her stop and turn around. He did offer his hand, Louisa was torn between the smug cheer in her head that she expected this and the guilty tugging feeling that she snapped at him. However, she placed her hand on his and tried to hold the dress with only one hand. Why was he even bothering to do this? She was sure that he liked her and all but... she didn't think he'd stick to her side if she ruined the mood. Maybe their talk about 'love' imprinted such an impression, but it was wrong now it seemed.

The Ravenclaw looked around, "I think the lake would be fascinating at this time." Also, she loved the vast space stretching with the surface of the black lake. That should definitely change her mood from snappish to smooth. Hopefully.

"Yeah," Sky agreed. "Did you see the map with the pins where everyone's from?" She thought it was one of the coolest things she'd seen. "Most of the North Americans are Slytherins!" Sky thought that was awesome, being one of those Slytherin North Americans herself.

Oh sweet Merlin!

Destiny didn't know what the big deal was. She was eighteen, and, she would never tell anyone about this, but she did have a very long, stressful and confusing conversation about boys with her mother. Half the things she learned has left her scarred for life! But the most important thing was that she had learned that boys don't have cooties. Although, with the way Carter was acting, he had to have something wrong with him. And she was the one who spent all that time in St. Mungo's. Pfft.

She rolled her eyes as he grabbed her hand to stop poking him, and after trying and failing to pull away, she just gave up. It wasn't like she was holding his hand. "Well, that was the only time I heard you sing and rhyme. And..you're acting like I would have let you kiss me!" No, she was sure she would have pushed him away. Gah! She didn't want to think about what she would've done. Instead, she used her free hand to poke him again. "I only thought we were going to do the chicken dance!"

And she would just ignore the fact that she hadn't pulled her hand away when she realized that wasn't what they were doing..

Her mouth hung open when he spoke and..she could not believe he just said that. About HER! How did he come up with that? Sure, she may have tackled him for his badge. Sure, she did spend alot of time with him, but like she told Marilyn, they were just friends. It was all HIM. He let her tackle him. He spent his time with her. Destiny knew what he was doing and she gave him a hard poke in the chest. "It's you! You like me and you are just trying to confuse me into thinking I like you because you don't want to admit that you prefer brunettes over blondes!"

Yeah. Her smug look was back.

Carter blinked. Sweet Merlin. Destiny was right. That meant... that singing and rhyming weren't a side effect of Destiny... but a side effect of the potion. So was it possible...? He didn't want to think about that.

Besides. They were currently addressing Destiny's denial feelings...

Pffft. Yes, Carter just Pfffted. "Please! Not only do I bet you'd have let me kiss you. I bet you'd have enjoyed it! Just like you enjoyed dancing." And he wasn't talking about the 'give you a galleon' kind of bets. No. He was talking about how sure he was that that would have been what happened.

And now she was poking him again. "You can't have seriously thought we were doing a chicken dance to this." It was... slow... Plus, she took his hand. You don't hold hands when chicken dancing... it made it hard to do that flapping move.

What? His jaw dropped at that accusation. "Where would you get an idea like that from?" Carter People don't just stop liking blondes. Nor did that sentence make any sense. What would she admitting that she liked him have anything to do with him and blondes?

And did she have to give him that look? Carter was the one that figured her out... not the other way around!

"Oh, ya that is true" maddy replied "I thought most of the Slytherins would be from England, cause of the whole pureblood thing. But maybe its more about personality rather then blood status". Maddy had noticed that most of the flashing pins were Slytherin.

Jade was fascinated by the entire idea of this whole shenanigan, although she felt a bit awkward in her "costume". It was just not...her. She felt as if she could have went in her I Love Liverpool t-shirt and some pajama pants than this "proper" dress that her brother had sent her. Ugh, she felt so weird.

Although, she really shouldn't be thinking about that right now, she had to find Nikolas. She already was about five, no, fifteen minutes late and she felt horrible. It wasn't her fault though, she really didn't want to go down here in this thing, but her friends made her go. She walked alongside the dance floor and she found Nikolas. She laughed to herself at his "costume" and put her hands on his eyes. "Guess who." She said, taking her hands off when he guessed. "I'm glad you didn't find anybody else to dance with while I was gone. I'm sorry for making you wait." She apologized.

Hmm where was Jade? I know girls take a lot of time to get ready but come on it shouldn't take too much, I mean just wear something nice and that's it. No big deal. Good thing about being a man. Besides he always looked good.

Suddenly he felt someone hands on his eyes. He knew that voice and simply smiled and turned around to kiss her. "I was just about to ask that girl over there" he pointed with his finger at some random girl, of course he was teasing her. "Nah, it's okay. It was worth the wait because you look beautiful" he smiled. "Now..." he took her hand and said "Shall we dance?"

Jonathan looked at her. See?! He kinda does come out stubborn sometimes and people notices. "I don't know" he shrugged "but I can't really get credit for being a good dancer when I'm not" besides dancing was something his father forced him to do which is entirely a different thing to Jonathan. He hates it when one forces him. That's why he's not that close to his old man. Who forces their own child to dance? sheez.

Jonathan snorted. Oh "He has a lot to say" he smirked and rolled his eyes. There were a lot of things that goes on around their house that Kurumi isn't aware of. Alexander is a perfectionist maybe that's why he works under Borr right now. Whatever that is... Advisor...

Jonathan laughed softly right now after hugging her. And then again swayed when Kurumi looked at him. The party is nice, they were having more people coming in not just to dance but to eat and be in their traditional costume. But does Jonathan's outfit count? He was born and raised in London after all. His ethnicity is Korean.

Then they talked about wands and magic. Jonathan raised an eyebrow? No wands? "But you're witches and wizards" he looked confused. "you're suppose to have wands" because wands are important to their own kind. The wand is your very own identity right? That's why each person/ wizard has their own designated wand. No one is a like. Does her mother really hate magic?