"Yes, but now I want two." Dora could be greedy, she could. Especially when it came to bestie attention. The staring didn't go unnoticed, but no comments came from her, mostly because she did a great deal of staring herself for different reasons. They all looked really hot up there. "So we'll roll on the ground together then." She grinned at Alice teasingly. Did the band have a song for that? They should.

Food. Of course. She tugged the girl over to the food table and dropped her hand so she could have both for eating. "Don't get greasy foods, or too much food, or food on the dress." Actually, the last one was the most important. It was an expensive dress after all.

"Well, I want zero. And one's in between." Compromise, see? And she didn't want to roll on the ground. Standing was much more preferable... actually, even that was too much effort for her old body, and Alice was sure she'd enjoy sitting and eating and watching Dora more than moving.

But the food. Now this was something about which she could show enthusiasm. "Why not? I like greasy stuff sometimes. And you're a witch, for Merlin's sake, haven't you ever heard of a cleaning spell?" She stuck her tongue out at Dora, eyes still on the snack choices. It all looked so good.

Tunnel of Love, huh? The idea of the gondolas was pretty interesting, even though she didn't have a boyfriend or anything... "Bay, will you go into the tunnel of love with me?" Totally as friends though, of course. No funny business. She beamed at Sander as she waited for Bay to reply to her.

Lux was about to tell Alex that it was totally okay to not have a date, as it was nothing to be ashamed of, but Bay swooped in and saved the day. Awww, he was so sweet. Giving Sander a smile, she thought about how cute it was to take Alex on as a date since she clearly seemed sad about having been on her own. Gosh, she was liking Valentine's Day more and more. It was so lovely to be here with her friends.

"Louis, I want to dance with you." And she also wanted a drink. Yes, a drink would be lovely.

"Zero's not a real number. One and a half dances." That was a proper compromise. "And I promise not to twirl you too much." Like only two or three times, she was very mindful of her friends old lady syndrome. If they did end up rolling on the ground, she'd just cast a cushioning charm so that it was a nice rolling dance.

She moved aside some plates and utensils so that she could plant her bum on the edge of the table, eyes drifting around the stage and settling on Alice again. "You like greasy stuff all the times. And I don't feel like casting any cleaning spells right now." Wouldn't they have to do that later? Or you know... everyone who stayed after?

Her eyes found there way back to the crowd. "Try something healthy."

"It is too a real number." Her nose scrunched up in defiance, the usual habit that made her look like a little bunny coming into play. "S'a rational number, and a whole number, and an integer, AND it's round which just makes it cool." So there. "One. I'll do more with you if I feel up to it, but I'll stay with you the whole time. Twirling?"

Merlin. Promising Dora ANY number of dances was a bad idea.

She tried to survey the food more seriously, but her best was getting in the way, so she gave up. "Do not. Sometimes it's gross, and Gran says it can do bad things to my body and make me put on so much weight that I'll break my broom if I sit on it." And Alice was quite fond of her broom. "I can cast cleaning spells just fine, thanks. Like what healthy?" Options, please.

If she wasn’t mistaken, things had gotten kind of weird. Of course, Lily wasn’t having any part of any weirdness, not when she was talking music and just generally being social. There wasn’t any reason not to be, after all. “Do a lot of people play?,” she asked West, as he’d made his little quip. She honestly didn’t know, but then only a handful of people her likely knew she played. Aside from the fact her dormmates had likely seen her guitar at one point or another. “Sure. Anytime,” she added, as he’d suggested they jam sometime too. It wouldn’t be that hard finding her if he wanted, since he could just ask Dora or Vesper, or even Astrid if she knew where her fellow musketeer had gotten to lately. She actually didn’t remember if she’d seen her since the dance lesson.

She would have said he could ask Austin, but that was where the weirdness had come in. She didn’t know why he was ignoring everyone aside from herself, as she had smiled again at Penelope as well as the few others who had shown up nearby. People were starting to gather, which made her think that maybe the show was going to start soon. Not to mention West had spoken as if it was going to happen soon. At least then she’d know for sure that she couldn’t try his guitar out, and she was even more sure that things were starting as Ascanius and Vesper had both arrived and joined West and Nigel on the stage. They’d both gotten smiles, in return for those that had probably just been given out generally to everyone gathered. At least she wasn’t going to be rude.

“Well you look nice in a suit,” she replied to Austin, pointedly trying to get him to realize how awkward he’d made things when she was talking to other people without actually coming out and saying it. She’d never thought he was antisocial. She knew he had friends, anyway, so no matter how beautiful he thought she was, he couldn’t say that she’d distracted him. Saying hi to people wouldn’t have bothered her. She’d still smiled as he’d leaned over to kiss her cheek, but the rest of it hadn’t been forgotten. It wasn’t like she’d been planning on stealing anything, or doing anything stupid. She wasn’t that obsessed with guitars, or being a band groupie. She wasn’t going to let him think otherwise. “When you act like you don’t know anything, you can’t get mad at people for thinking you don’t,” she pointed out. “Especially when you act all weird and like you don’t want to talk to anyone or admit they exist.” There. She’d said it. She wasn’t going to let him completely ignore that there were other people there, even if it was Valentine’s Day and he’d been all sweet and gotten her a present. Nobody was going to steal her away this time. Not in that way. She’d taken the box from him, though, feeling guilty that she didn’t have anything for him. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Leah watched absent-mindedly at a boy wandering around alone. She watched silently as Hope called him to their table, and started chatting with him like old friends. Only the atmosphere did not really seem like two old friends. Leah jolted out of her own thoughts back to the conversation.

She proceeded to answering Hope's first question. "I don't think we do this every year, do they?" She asked the boy, who apparently was not a first year, and should know more about the school events. "It would be good if we did it next year too, I might have a date." Might. "Although I guess it would get boring after a while. My parents were both in Hogwarts when they were young, and there were no Valentine Parties at that time."

"So... you guys know each other? Met in the summer?" Leah asked the two people. It looked like they had an incident, seeing Hope apologizing. She had known a lot of friends over the summer in Diagon Alley too, and most of them turned out good.

"Obviously I don't looooove Valentine's, I'm a single." Leah replied, pretending to look miserable and sighing into her knees. Actually, she did not mind much. But if she was single until her last year at Hogwarts, she would go crazy for sure. "But I'm glad this is a holiday, we get to have a party, hang around with friends, you know." Like right now!

Whoa okay back things up a little bit, now why was Lily annoyed with him? He barely did anything wrong to begin with so there was no reason for her to be mad, at least Austin didn’t seem to think so; apparently he was missing something then. Her comment about how he was dressed nice definitely had a hard edge to it, like she was trying to prove a point but it never entirely registered, all that had was the fact that he was trying to not stutter again since it hadn’t been anything which people knew about him and the last thing that needed to happen at this point was anyone else knowing. Was already bad enough that people seemed to think that he was a snob for some reason, which was so far from the truth that it wasn’t even funny. This really wasn’t going to be helping. Just more making things worse. Problem was that he didn’t want to be forced to leave here, since this was supposed to be a good day where nothing went wrong but seeing as that idea was practically impossible now; he wasn’t entirely sure what to do.

“But still, it was completely uncalled for. I don’t want to be made to feel like I’m a little kid or something which was exactly how I felt that day. Of course, no one knew that either.” he commented, trying to keep the stutter from his words but it was getting increasingly more difficult by the moment since he wanted more than anything to be able to forget about it. What a joke that was. Once she had made her next comment, he only blinked before getting what was going on. Now he just felt bad since somehow he forgot about everyone else and was simply talking to her though there was no waiting, so it was more interjecting into conversations. “W-we-ll I-I’m sorry. I-I d-d-didn’t mean to ignore e-veryone. I-I still d-d-don’t do well with t-talking to new people.” he managed to get out, even if it took a lot longer than usual. Wasn’t really a happy day anymore since in the course of less than ten minutes, his girlfriend was mad at him, people around him thought that he was rude. Even if he didn’t know that for sure. It was almost not even worth staying at this point.

And here was Ascanius.

"So ready." Seriously. West wasn't just ready, he was excited. Like this adrenaline that just.... well. Suffice it to say that he was definitely ready.

Then Vesper arrived and wow. West stared a bit, fascinated by the petals, and also by her confidence. "Ves... you look brilliant." Apt word because she kind of shone with it. Like she belonged right here. In her element. He was eager to see if it got even more so when they started.

He did manage to grin at her though and did a little spin to show off his own threads. "Hey, we match." And Nigel was right, it was time. Hopefully their set would go well.

West adjusted his grip on his guitar and moved in front of his microphone. The other one, of course, was set up at Vesper's keyboard in the centre, with West off to her left, and Nigel to her right. And Ascanius and his drumkit at the back.

The music on the soundsystem faded away and he switched the microphone on.

"First off, I wanna thank everyone for being here tonight -we're mostly gonna play a bunch of covers of classic Muggle bands... so obviously professor Hadley should give all of us extra credit for the research." Grin.

"And since this is the Half-Hearted ball... we're supposed to be playing love songs to get everyone in the mood, and well we figure this is close enough. Go Your Own Way, originally by Fleetwood Mac."

And West began to play, and shot Vesper a wink. All you, petal girl.

Half-Hearted Ball? Brynn lifted her brown eyes from the table and looked around at all the decorations. This was certainly something and she supposed it did fit with a Valentine's Day theme. So it was a ball.. like a dance? Her eyes flickered to the stage area as some student musicians seemed to be setting up or something, then glanced back at Fern. "Gosh, Fern, you look nice," she smiled at her friend, noticing her pretty dress and sparkly nails. Half-hearted was funny though because that's about what Brynn felt at that moment. Heh. How appropriate.

The eleven year old squinted at the table, grabbing a slice of heart-shaped pepperoni pizza and taking a bite. It would probably give her killer heartburn later, but she was hungry and this would have to suffice. Mid-chew, she glanced back at Fern as she asked questions. Kace? Brynn gave her a kind of weird look then glanced around the Great Hall. Was she looking for him? "Ask me what?"

Oh.

Brynn turned back to Fern and sort of huffed. "Don't you read the school paper?" she started, fully meaning the Aparecium. "Kace is the biggest player in school. I wouldn't go with him anyway. He's weird." Sure, she could admit he was really cute and had those piercing blue eyes, but he was no DC Fontaine. Who she was sure didn't string along girls! Spotting him in the crowd, she pointed him out to the Hufflepuff. "See?" He was totally with yet another girl.

Taking another bite of her pizza, her eyes flickered back to Fern. "So what's the napkin for anyway?"

"It really means a lot though." Anna smiled, "Like I said, aside from the necklace Mel got me for Christmas, I haven't had a gift given to me since I was eight." She gave a slight nod and smiled up at him, trying to force the blush to fade, but it wasn't working too well for her. She silently sighed.

Annaleecia smiled and nodded to what he said then paused slightly as he asked her to dance... Not that she didn't want to, her nerves were just a little jumbled at the moment. She stood up though as she took his hand, "I'd love to, Mr. Kace." She fought back the butterflies again, just trying to remind herself that it was just a dance, not something to freak out about.

Delilah watched with a smile as Lottie and Jeremiah walked over to where she was standing right by the stage.

"Hey!" She said, her smile slowly widening to a grin. "I didn't know you were coming." Honestly, Delilah had assumed that her friend would be spending Valentines with a certain someone.. but she wasn't complaining. "You look super nice, though." Just like she always did, yeah? And then her blue-grey eyes turned to look at Jeremiah. A very well-dressed Jeremiah, actually. "Looking darn good, Walker." He got a hug too.. and a kiss on the cheek.



"Yes! I mean, it's a concert. I'm obviously excited." Delilah grinned at Penelope. It probably showed on her face. It was a pity she didn't bring along her camera, though. It would have been nice to take pictures.

"Who's your Valentine?" She asked, curiously. Because everyone seemed to have one. Except for her.



Ooooh, a dance. Yeah, maybe. Delilah hadn't been in the mood to dance or even SMILE earlier but now.. yeah, she'd consider it. Especially since it was West. "Good luck." He probably didn't need any.

OH YAY!! They were starting....... and they were singing FLEETWOOD MAC. OMG! One of her most favourite bands. Delilah laughed happily and might have cheered a little too.. Um. Yes. ANYWAY. This day was slowly turning out to be the best day ever.

.. Yeah. She was so glad she'd decided to come.

Tobias had spent the days in the run up to the Half-Hearted ball all but fraught with anxiety about whether or not this ageing condition would suddenly get worse again before the actual event. He found he was still almost perpetually in a cranky mood, and the slow moving and shuffling around was really getting old (buddum-tsh!), but he had, at least, no gotten any worse.

And now here he was, decked out in blue and black, sort of wishing he could have worn pyjamas but liking his sharp attire. As it was a special occasion, he'd charmed his hair back to brown again and used the wrinkle potion, but that wasn't really enough to hide all the signs of ageing. But the good thing was, as long as he didn't move too quickly, his back wasn't giving him any trouble. Tobias was pleased with that; being able to move freely was much more important to him than looking a bit old. As long as he didn't think about it too much.

When he arrived at the Great Hall (in comfy shoes, 'cause that was very important), Tobias took a moment to squint around at the room and the people and the BAND and everyone's pretty clothes. He was looking for someone in particular, but it was kinda hard to see, really. Toby figured the best way of doing this would be to actually move around and look, so that was what he did.

And it turned out to be a good idea. Only a minute or so of shuffling around and Toby thought he sort of found who he was looking for. Maybe? It was difficult, because of the whole formal wear thing. But as he closed the distance, Tobias knew for sure that it was his bestie.

"Soph?" he spoke with a smile. "Y'look awesome."

Sitting down, yes, Sophie had the right idea. Tobias made to sit in a seat by her, just as he heard the band start playing.

The band had begun, which was kind of funny and cool at the same time. She liked Ascanius, Ves, and Nigel plenty - she didn't know West - but she got a kick out of them being in a band. Ascanius? She wasn't at all surprised about him, but the other two? Yeah, it made her laugh a little, but it was pretty cool of them nonetheless.

Her pizza devoured, Sophie had just raised her head to find her friendship valentine addressing her, much to her surprise. And he looked gooooooood. She gave him a subtle one-over with her eyes, and a grin spread across her face. "No, you! I like your blue shirt. Dapper. Makes your eyes look extra cool." It did, didn't it? But Sophie didn't focus on his eyes for too long - she had scooped up one of the cupcakes on her plate and scooted it toward him as he sat down. "I got you a cupcake." Griiiin. He liked cupcakes, didn't he? Were there people in the world who DIDN'T like cupcakes?

Theodore nudged her back and tried to not blush at her blushing. It was very difficult but he managed to keep a lid on it. "You know it's true." Any compliment he gave Ella Bishop was true. The truest of truths. OH MY GOSH, RIGHT? At least Ella understood. "Isn't it exactly the sorta thing she'd do? Ugh, creep." Even though he had taken the chocolates anyway and scoffed them. Maybe he should've known better than that. He giggled at her Head Girl comment. "Gotcha, ma'am."

No dying. Not today.

"Uhhh..." Theo looked over to the stage to see what was going on, and then he sighed. The music was pretty lame at the moment, but he didn't really want to keep Ella too long from whatever she wanted to do. She'd only promised him one dance, after all. Theo looked back at Ella and chuckled, looking at the ground. "Yeah, okay, you got me. Still waiting for my Charms queen to come through that door." Whatever, she taught Transfiguration, but his crush on Bellaire started in Charms class.

OOOOH..

"They're starting!" Theo grabbed hold of Ella's hand and dragged her so they were closer to the front of the stage. He grinned all excited when West started to play, and after a moment of proud watching, he turned to Ella and held both of her hands. "Now. Yeah?" He started doing some sort of dancing, but it wasn't the usual slow type that he was used to. Oh well, this music was FUN.

Tiny hands clasped together, the little girl slowly made her way through the huge doors to the Great Hall. And within an instant her eyes were stunned at what she saw before. The Great Hall had been entirely decked out to resemble the looks out of something of a fairytale almost; well at least that's how she saw it. Her blues eyes were immediately scanning around at everything that she could rest her eyes, only growing more & more excited with how amazing everything looked.

It was when she settled her eyes on the other students that she began to feel a little self-conscious. Most of the girls looked absolutely beautiful in all of their beautiful dresses, while she was beginning to feel that she was perhaps a little under-dressed? Adjusting her glasses, she began to definitely second-guess herself. Should she go back to the dorm and change maybe? Well..actually what good would that do, her father didn't particularly favor her wearing too many pretty things, in fear of; his words, attracting strangers to come steal her away because of her tragic beauty.

...Well...father wasn't here...and besides she could bring her wand with her for protection if she needed it.

....'Lets go chang-'

Before she could even turn to head back out of the Hall, she'd heard someone speak loudly on a microphone that echoed throughout the large hall. A Band? The school had it's own band? Really? How cool! Curiosity had definitely caught her interest yet again! Josette soon began making her way through the crowd of very tall people towards the sound of the person who'd just spoken on the microphone, hoping to get a good look at what this band looked like before they'd get swarmed and she couldn't see anything. Luckily as it turned out for her, she'd managed to get rather close to the stage and get a good look at the four bigger students on the stage above her. She couldn't help but think of how amazing they all looked! Were they professionals or something? Were they really talented? She was very curious to find out! They going to stay playing now, yes?

WAIT...wasn't the lead singer on the Quidditch team with her?

If he was calm, cool and collected before, it was nothing compared to how Adi felt now. He felt completely at ease as if this was something he did before and knew what to expect. But he could say one thing; this wasn't as hard as he thought it would be.

Adi grinned. "There sure is! Let's have loads of pictures taken, then.'' And then they'd both have something to remember this awesome night. Yep, he knew it was going to be awesome.

He watched Sophie's reaction with bated breath. The Puffer hadn't been sure on what to get her so he hoped she would like it. Couldn't turn up empty handed on his first date now, could he? It turned out that she liked it! Phew! He could breathe again. Hehe. "I'm glad you like it.'' Really, he was. he had gotten her many gifts? "Two is not many,'' Adi reassured Sophie. "I'm not looking forward to anything in return. Just glad you agreed to be my Valentine.'' He grinned again. "Can you imagine how embarrassing it would have been for me of you said no? I mean, I "asked" you in front of all the others.'' Well technically, he didn't ask her. His little note did that. But she was going to get him candy? No problem with that. He loooved candy.

And then Adi was pulling back from the kiss. His face was light red and he knew it. "Um...mine too,'' he said lamely. Uh, jeez. He really hoped Sophie wasn't going to be mad at him. "Sorry. I don't know what came over me.'' Adi forced himself to regain his calm composure and at that moment West began to speak about the band getting started. Saved by music! They were going to do a Fleetwood Mac song! And it was one the second year was familiar with! Awesomeee.

Forgetting all about the unexpected kiss, he glanced at Sophie excitedly. Was she up for dancing? If she was, the Photo Booth would have to wait.

Andrew chuckled and nodded at Justine's suggestion. "Aha, a marvelous idea." He smirked in response. "What shall we blame it on?" He asked, looking around the room for something suitably hilarious. Andrew was usually quite insecure, especially when meeting new people, but he felt completely at ease with Justine. Perhaps it was because he'd seen her around before, but he doubted it. He blushed in self-consciousness when he realized that his table manners regarding the macaroon were perhaps not the best. "Sorry." he shrugged. "They're just really good!" he made a poor attempt at excusing himself. His family had always placed a lot of value in traditional education and politeness. Every single one of his older brothers had gone to Hogwarts before him, and they all had been incredibly successful student. Sometimes that was a lot to live up to, and it was good to just forget about etiquette from time to time.

Andrew definitely wasn't the sort of fellow who became so easily enthusiastic, but he was drawn to this girl, and had become sincerely interested in her words despite the fact that they barely knew each other. Andrew felt this was reason enough to try to show a little engagement as well, as he was really trying his best to move out from under the figurative rock his social life lived under.

"I'll say something else too.." He began. "I love that you sometimes say 'Oui' in place of a boring old 'Yes'." he said, sincerely wanting to make her feel certain that he meant it, which he did. He'd known many people from countries outside his own, and many of them were self-conscious about their accents, especially if they tended to use words from their own language.

"Paris!" he said as she corrected his guesses. "I was totally saying that next. It just felt like too obvious of a choice!" He grinned teasingly. He didn't think it was fair to say that he had really studied languages, as the only teacher he had ever had was himself, but he was relatively competent when it came to quite a few different languages, french included. "Back home we have this big library, you see.." He explained. "I suppose it's a bit of a hobby of mine to read, and learn about whatever I can, and we have a huge section on linguistics." He continued, but paused. He didn't want to bore Justine, and he worried that if he got started on his geeky tangent, he'd never stop!

"Maybe." Maybe it was true. She'd trust him on his being there but other people? PSH. Better him and Alexa than her. She'd just get all awkward and weird. Besides, Alec's lips were the only ones she was interested in kissing. Nice lips too, Alec's. As for Alexa poisoning people, Ella bit her lip. "I pictured her as more of a puncher than a poisoner but who knows." She was ferocious in the way that Hulk was so the blonde wouldn't be messing with her off the Quidditch pitch or anything. Besides, Ella quite liked Lex. Wait, Ma'am? Ella giggled too and curtseyed. "Thanks, kind Sir." So obedient.

Ah-ha! Ella grinned at Theo and bounced on the balls of her feet with some pain, mind you. "Knewwww it," She said in a teasing voice. His crush on Bellaire was amusing but also cute. Reminded her of little Theo, y'know? "Sophie will be the new Charms Queen someday. It's her plan after Hogwarts." Or it used to be. Maybe someday she'd be the one teaching kids here.

West was talking which made Ella pause and she was about to say they were starting wh--

Oh, okay. Go right ahead and take charge, Theo. It's totally fine. Ella's little legs weren't quite as quick as Theo's long ones and she did her best to keep up as he navigated them through the crowd and towards the front. Actually, it had been a good plan because she could actually see properly from here. Cool beans. Oh and dancing was happening? Right-o.

The blonde smiled at Theo's moves and mirrored him, trying her best to keep up despite the old age thing that made her every move painful. The song choice was awesome too and Ella's head bobbed along to the music as she swung Theo's hands back and forth. "I'd twirl you but you're too tall, giant," She said cheerfully over the music. Really though, even in heels she was a tiner compared to everyone else. No fair.

It was as if Ana could read his mind. The Slytherin shot her a grin and a nod before taking hold of her hand and leading her over to the food table. So much good stuff to eat. That pizza looked pretty appetising, his stomach would be pretty appreciative of a slice, or four. He piled a couple of slices on his plate before glancing around at what else was on there. "I better not eat too much before dancing" he chuckled, taking a small bite out of the pizza. Yes. That was pretty good.

His attention was drawn towards the stage when he heard West start talking. Then the band erupted into song and he spotted a few of his friends dancing about at the front. He looked to his girlfriend with an eyebrow raised. "I guess we could always go back to eating" he smiled. "I think its only right I show my dorm mates some support." There were two of them up there after all.

"Fancy a dance?" he asked. Not a slow dance. Not yet anyway but he was sure he'd be dragged up for one of those later.

"Things like this, hmm?" Nigel earned another playful smile. "...because we just have these types of parties all the time." Vesper dropped him a deliberate wink before gravitating towards her keyboard. It was weird to have a show...and for her equipment to already be set up for her. Who had moved their stuff here? She hadn't asked...

Running her fingers along the ivory keys at intervals, nothing seemed off or tampered with. No, the Ravenclaw wasn't one for violence...but there weren't any promises if something would've been messed up. OH, and her mitt was here, too. With a wide BEAMY FACE, Ves plucked it up and tugged it on and up her left hand, securing the Velcro. It was fingerless with a pullover cover (for her fingers), of course...meant to keep her hands toasty while she played. Since they were waiting to begin, she did some digit warmups...fingering the keys in quicker concessions now.

"I think we're about to start!....Catch you during our first break, though, okay?" There was stuff to talk about! Vesper wanted to ask Lotie about a trip she wanted to go on this summer...and well, yea. It needed to be discussed. There might have been others she could've asked...but...other stuff made that weird. And Ves was having ZERO weirdness tonight. NO WEIRDNESS ALLOWED.

"...And thank you, Miss Penelope! You, too!"...The Gryffindor girl got a wink and maybe even some wiggly brows. She looked so pretty! Seriously, how Scan landed HER of all people, Ves would never understand. Him and his noise...BUT SHE ADORED HIM, okay?! Gosh, he could never know, though...or she'd never hear the end of it. His stoopid vain self.

...BLUSH! He'd............said she looked brilliant. Ves paused for a moment, having to remind herself that she was about to perform...and collapsing on the spot was not a good idea. It was just West. West said things like that to everyone. NOT a big deal. Yes, she would remain casual.

*INTERNAL FLAILING*

"I'd say great minds think alike...but yours is much better than mine." If the words were a bit shaky...oops? Gosh, she couldn't look at him. Too much pretty on that boy's face. It wasn't natural...In fact, to distract herself, she stepped further away...all casual-like, trying not to look at him too much. All the Ravenclaw needed to be focused on was CONFIDENCE. Eyes were on them...It couldn't matter at the moment that some people just didn't know the effect they had on others...

Then, they were beginning...and the adrenaline was a-flowin'. Vesper could hardly contain her excitement. WHERE WAS HER TAMBOURINE?!....They had a set list, because they were professional about this, obviously...and there wasn't piano with their first song...So, she'd be showing off the shiny instrument she'd gotten for Christmas, along with the awesome scarf that had the 'DEAD KNEAZLES' logo stitched into the bottom of it; a gift from her mom. *BEAM* Because now it totally looked like a Stevie Nicks tambourine...just like she wanted.

She glanced to Nigel...and then to West...and then to Ascanius; the look on her face utterly STUPID with her HAPPINESS.

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair...” *TWIRL*


Fleetwood Mac. Vesper loved that her bandmates got it. That made them WINNERS. *SPAZ*

Finding and grasping her black tambourine loosely, she stepped around her keyboard to allow herself some room. Unlike the piano, this was all about movement...So, 'space needed' was a given.

When West started to actually play, she glanced in his direction, still grinning stupidly. Ugh. FIRST GIG FEELS...and he was pretty. It was both awesome and terrible looking at him.

Finding her 'in', she grasped the body of the mic with her left hand, and moved the instrument in her right, the flower petals on her arm flashing red and pink. Still, no nerves. Not even a little bit. "Lovin' you......isn't the right thing to do..." She forced herself to not look at just one person. Performance 101. "....How can I........ever change things...that I feel?" Her voice sang through, soulful and full of conviction; mainly because she loved this band, this song...and yea, Ves sang it in her bedroom at home A LOT. Why not sing it like you mean it..."....If I could, baby I'd give you my world...but how can I....when you won't take it from me?"

Oh, snap. The beat picked up and she made sure to move her body with the music, allowing herself to get into it...because why not? PERFORMANCE. West joined her in harmonies now...and she couldn't stop herself from grinning cheekily at him. "You can go your own waaaaaaaaaaay....Go your own waaaaaaaaaaay...." Then, she broke off, handing vocal control over to the West. She backed him where he needed it, all the while adding to the rhythm with shakes of her hand.

...And then she spotted Alice. This shouldn't have surprised her or anything. Of COURSE, Alice would be there supporting West...like a good girlfriend. She was standing next to Dora...and Vesper had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, amending that previous thought. Not because of Dora...but because Dora had probably been the one to drag her over here...She was good like that...and Alice was difficult. Vesper knew.

It might have been the performance...or confidence she'd gained from being dressed up and painted, but she narrowed her eyes at the Gryffindor. Did Alice see it? The Ravenclaw hoped so.

OOC: *has permission to godmod the West slightly*

"No maybe about it." Mmmhm. Ehhhhhh... to be honest, he didn't exactly want a punch from Alexa either. Best to just stay away. Which is exactly what he was doing right now. "She'd never punch me." He said with a smirk. A beautiful face like this? Nah... And to be honest, Theo would most likely cry and tell a teacher if someone punched him, so let that be a warning to everyone. Sir, hehehe. He couldn't help but give her a wink.

Since when had Elladore become so normal?

"Hope she doesn't leave me hanging." In all seriousness, if Professor Bellaire DID make an appearance, Theo was almost 100% sure that he would ask her to dance. What would be weird about that? Teachers and students danced at dances all the time on the television.... right? "Seriously? That's wicked." He was glad that someone had plans about what they wanted to do after school. "What're you planning?" He asked very curiously.

This was fun. And the band were AWESOME. Theo was momentarily distracted from Ella when Vesper started singing. Guuuuuuuurl was a natural, wow! But anyway - back to the dancing. He tried to focus on that the most since the music was SUPER loud and making his ears hurt.

Good but... loud. Too close. Gah.

He really didn't expect Ella to twirl him anyway. That was the man's job. Besides, he had practiced that in their dance lesson with Cassia, so he was pretty confident. He was BEAMING, and then he pulled Ella towards him and in a super quick movement, he raised his arm in the air and twirled her underneath it. When she had successfully twirled, Theo caught her back in his arms and bent her backwards and leaned over her. "That's how it's done." He was actually surprised to have pulled that last part off, but given his huge physical growth over the years, it was soooooooo much easier.

Marigold had made it down to the stage area, firstly because it was HER FAVORITE BAND EVER playing, secondly because Mitchell had effectively cheered her up. Her letter from her parents, telling her about her grandfather's death, was on her bed next to Tozzy. She still was sad, but she figured her grandpa wouldn't want her to be sad for the rest of her life. Plus, since he was a muggle and the Dead Kneazles were playing muggle songs, if they played a son he liked it would be a tribute.

She bounced up and down on her heels, looking simultaneously for Mitchell and for West. Except West was onstage. HAI WEST!!! She mailed at him for a minute before examining the other band members. There was Zahra's lover, Ascanius, as well as another boy she didn't know. And some girl... Casper or something?... and saw that she was smiled at West too. She immediately liked her.

Once the song started, she did some side-stepping. Still scanning the crowd for her friend, she smiled. She was happy. .... And not just because of the West-playing-music-part.

Gosh Theodore, could you stop? Ella was even redder now but doing her best to ignore it. Instead she smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Whatever you say, Prefect Kinsley." She'd take his word for it, okay? SNORT. "I wouldn't bet on that one, Theo." Was it mean to be amused about this? Oh gosh, probably. But yes, best for him to stay away or be nice. Besides, they would be seventh years soon. Best to move on from any drama at this point. Just saying. The wink, though? Ella laughed and winked back, a big over-exaggerated one at that. Gran would be proud.

This was going well, wasn't it? Shocker. Maybe things could be normal again after all.

"I'd be surprised if she missed the chance to dress up." Bellaire was a bit of a fashionista, wasn't she? At least Ella thought she had style. Seemed lots of Professors did these days, actually. Maybe trying to keep the Headmistress happy since she seemed to like following the trends. "It is, yeah. She's going to do great things." Sophie was brilliant so Ella had no doubts. As for her, the blonde smiled a little. "Uni for Magizoology. I mean, if I get in." And it felt really good to have a plan.

Vesper's voice, though? WOW. Ella's green eyes widened a bit and she just listened. No wonder the girl kept quiet so often. Open that mouth and pure magic would come out and then dance parties would break out in class and it'd be anarchy. She knew people would probably be writing about her now though, yeah? That'd be something different.

And Theodore Kinsley had moves. Ella was surprised at how suddenly she was pulled in and then twirled so she let out a little squeak, glad that he was holding on to her or else she'd probably have fallen over. Her body wasn't the strongest as of late so the Slytherin really did need to make sure she didn't end up on the ground. And look at that, finishing with a dip. Ella grinned up at him and said cheerfully, "I'm impressed! You should be on dancing with the stars or something." Okay, he wasn't that good but he honestly wasn't half bad. Who knew?

Kace smiled and was glad she was her friend. At least she can change her future now when she is at hogwarts. When he asked her to dance, he hoped she would say yes. He was standing there with his arm out but once she said yes, he smiled and was glad. "Why thank you my lady...!" he grinned and led her to the dance floor.

He maneuvered through people and finally got close to the band. He smiled and starting swinging her arms to try and get her to dance. "Don't tell me your a bad dancer now?" he joked with her.