If Daniel could read minds, he would have told Aria to get her eyes tested if she thought he looked drab in other clothes. Of course, he couldn't, so he just nodded when she said his attire looked smart.

"Yes, Lisa is my date" he confirmed. He was initially disappointed because he had discovered that he was only the second choice. But then he remembered that HE was the second choice and not Atlas. The Hufflepuff smirked conceitedly at his thoughts and fiddled with his sleeve, his gaze drawn to the banner Aria described.

What did she want to hear? Excellent work? Did she want a star? Also, who the even was Arden?

While the two girls were discussing their outfits, Daniel's gaze was drawn to Remy as she flipped her blonde hair in his direction. Something he had noticed her doing before. Just because he wasn't interested did not mean he was oblivious. He smirked slightly before turning to Aria and V as the oldest Slytherin asked whether he thought V looked gorgeous in that dress.

His gaze moved up and down to examine her, and while he wouldn't describe V as gorgeous, he guessed she wasn't bad either. "You look pretty today" he murmured, reclining in his chair.

As the conversation turned to dance, Daniel picked up his beverage from the table and drank the last of it before putting it back down.

His cheeks flushed slightly as V correctly guessed that he had learned to dance. The only difference was that he took his first dance lesson this summer in their family ballroom rather than when he was younger. He was irritated by the entire thing. He had openly stated to his parents that he did not want to take dance lessons, but even he could not ignore his father's orders as it was a family tradition. Minjae did not help either by saying that dancing felt like moving like water once he mastered it. He did not agree.

"You definitely made that up in your mind" he lied quite convincingly to V. He knew that she wanted to dance with him as she had admitted it before. His answer was still no. "Have you two taken pictures at the photo booth yet?"

Simon smiled at Miss O'Neil as she replied. "I'm glad to hear that," he nodded. He had never been a fan of dances unless his wife was here. Then Mrs. Holden would demand that they'd spend the whole night on the dance floor which Simon didn't mind but... for this event... he'd prefer to stay over here. He chuckled. "Perhaps. Also just observing the crowd. It's so interesting people watching... I find you learn a lot more about people by participating in the act of people watching. What do you think?"

At a natural pause, he directed his attention to some of the other students. He honed in on Mr. Yoon and Miss. Gellar in particular. With an eyebrow raised, he was curious to see what the two were discussing with such interesting facial expressions.

"Norman," he greeted his colleague as he approached the table where the punch lay. "What do you think of the dance?"

Maybe Phoenix wasn't cut out for these social events. Not that he had any aversion to socialization, but any time he was surrounded by a large group of people that he didn't know, he somehow ended up feeling invisible. Like today. The more people that showed up, the more the first year felt overlooked. Even the teachers didn't notice him. Not that he wanted to be the lame kid who only talked to adults at a party, but it just felt like it proved his point.

And was it just him or did that one girl in his year go out of her way to walk as far away from him as possible? Sable, he was pretty sure her name was, and he didn't really know her other than she was in some of his classes, so he wasn't sure why she'd deliberately avoid him. Certainly he was just being paranoid. He gave a nod of acknowledgement to both her and the girl with him - Vera, his dormmate's twin sister - before just deciding to go with the finger sandwiches. If no one was going to answer him, he wasn't going to let that ruin his appetite.

Phoenix sampled a tuna salad bite sized sandwich while he started to pile up his plate with a variety of little sandwiches, some fruit, crisps, and.. definitely some dessert. People watching wasn't exactly his thing, but he hung back a bit while more people showed up and talked amongst themselves. Maybe the photobooths would be more his speed, he thought while working through his food selection.

Glancing over, he noticed another boy about his age (Luca) looking over the refreshments. "You should try out the brownies," he suggested, nodding towards them, especially as he just had one of his own. "They're even more chocolatey than usual." In fact, he took one more for himself before they were all gone.

“Nice! You guys get along well then? Because she’s such a delight and bubbly while you’re… you.” The fifth year smiled almost apologetically at Daniel. ‘Grump’ was the word she was thinking but wasn’t that rude to say it out loud. She’d just leave Daniel to interpret it how he wanted to.

Excuse YOU, Mr. Grumpy Pants! A compliment would be nice, yes. Appreciate her artistic talents! But whatever. It didn’t matter. “Pretty is an understatement, Daniel. Honestly, you need a few lessons on giving ladies proper compliments.” No wonder he hadn’t commented on the banners!

Aria was quite delighted to have V for company as well, even if there was an ulterior motive in the form of her hoping to have some entertainment from the younger girl and Daniel. “I DID!!!’’ Woops! Did that come out extra enthusiastically? Yes. Yes, it did. “My fathers sent me the materials and I worked on it for months. Even the shoes. Of course I didn’t MAKE those but they were plain purple. I added the sequins.” Aria extended her feet to show V the shimmery footwear. See how they shone in the light?

The Slytherin returned to her food, biting the inside of her lower lip because V and Daniel were indeed entertaining and she was dying to laugh. “OOH? What form of dance are you fond of, Daniel? You can always teach me a few moves sometime.” Just for the record, no one get her wrong: Aria was NOT into Daniel or anyone else. She just was genuinely interested in others’ passions.

“I haven’t as yet. But I would like to at some point. Would you two care to take one with me?” Especially you, V, since Aria considered you a friend. Her brother looked too busy on the dance floor with Violet to really care about taking any photos with her. She felt that familiar stab of annoyance and dislike for Violet. Aria had been right: Violet seemingly was taking up most of Caes’ time recently and Aria was feeling abandoned.

He was hungry, okay. Having the promise of food at this dance thing, Finn hadn't eaten beforehand. Leading to the easily foreseen consequence of hunger, and eating too fast. Halfway done with the sandwich by the time Mitsuki offered the glass of...something, with an unnaturally dark purple sheen. He finished his bite, and accepted the glass, eyeing it with something between suspicion and curiosity. He was thirsty, but the past three years had taught him that sometimes magical things had unexpected consequences. Like smoke coming out of your ears, or turning you into a canary.

He noticed Mitsuki's gaze drifting to another student, but didn't really mind. Plus, he had other friends, so obviously she had other friends too. Probably. He instead focused was he on trying to decipher what kind of drink might be this color. He really did not know, and sniffing the glass didn't provide any insight either. Its scent was unidentifiable as either good or bad or fruity or spicy. He took a sip, trying to identify it via taste now. Some sort of juice, maybe? Juice of some magical fruit he'd never seen or heard of?

When his friend's attention returned to him, he smiled brightly. "Thank you!" he said, both for the hypothetical compliment from her grandfather and for the unfamiliar beverage. "Um. Do you know what this is?" he asked, nodding towards the glass. "It doesn't taste like anything I know."

Edric didn't really want to attend a dance, like, ever, but he was here because there was food and he was hungry. So although he absolutely, positively was not going to dance, he was going to construct a giant plate/mountain of food and then slowly work on eating it while he judged everyone's fancy outfits. Alone. From afar. As always.

Lydia very much wanted to dance some more with her friends, BUT she also needed something to drink. Hydration was important! And maybe a little food too. She wasn't very hungry yet, mostly thirsty, but since she was stopping by the food and refreshments tables anyway, she might as well grab a snack too.

Like that boy over there! Though, his plate looked...overly full. Like, that was a looot of food!

"Are you going to eat all of that?" she asked, her question equal parts curious and incredulous. Was it possible for one person to eat so much???

Luca still hadn’t quite mastered the art of casual conversation with his professors outside the classroom, always feeling a little unsure of himself in these type of interactions. The second year offered Professor Carton a polite smile and a shrug. ”Still trying to sort out what I want to eat myself, but everything looks good to me.” He paused, then quickly added, ”Sir.” He wondered how the adults felt about having to spend their evening with a bunch of kids they were already spending all day with, thinking some would rather be off doing anything else. They were doing a good job not showing it if that was the case, at least.

Did someone say brownies? Just like that, the second year turned his attention to the boy nearest him, leaving Professor C to chat to the other kids. Chocolate was more important right now, especially because Luca’s stomach had decided to announce just how hungry he was with a low rumble. No one heard that, right? ”Sounds delicious, thanks for the suggestion.” Luca grabbed himself a napkin and placed two brownies on top of it, deciding one just wasn’t going to be enough. ”Having fun yet?” He glanced around the room as he stood by his fellow chocolate appreciator, spotting Mitsuki and throwing a smile in her direction. The girl was an enigma, but she was cool. ”I’m not sure I’m really cut out for dances,” He admitted as he turned his attention back to the conversation and glanced at the boy beside him.

Norman returned Simon’s greeting with a polite nod. He hesitated for one brief moment before answering his colleague’s question, inwardly debating whether an honest answer or a polite one was called for. The whole reminds-him-too-much-of-his-dead-wife thing aside, he was better suited to the classroom than the dance floor, but he was genuinely happy for the students. He ultimately went with a combination of the two answers. “Not my cup of tea, but a night of fun will be good for the kids.”

Speaking of which, he was pleased to see no sign of shenanigans among the students as his eyes swept the area once more. Gaeltheos’s reply got a slight smile. “I see,” he said. “Let me know which dip is the best.” He had no intention of gorging himself, but he could be persuaded to try a little something by a good student recommendation.

Benetti also got a small smile. He could certainly relate to not knowing what food to try first. That was him back in his school days! “I understand,” he replied. “So much food can be rather overwhelming, right?” For the record, he wouldn’t have been fussed if the boy didn’t call him “sir”. As long as the students didn’t outright disrespect him, which Benetti certainly wasn’t, the formalities didn’t matter.


Kiara smiled warmly at Remy’s compliment. Frankly, she didn’t expect to wow anyone with her outfit. She just wore what she liked, and people could think what they wanted. “Thanks!” she replied. “I was kinda inspired by a phoenix, kinda inspired by the Gryffindor colors.” She shook her head at what the other girl said next. “I don’t think it’s boring. It’s classy and not too overdone.” No joke, she’d passed one girl on her way in who was wearing a dress that looked like a wedding cake! But she wouldn’t say that out loud because… rude!

That salsa was so good, she just had to have some more of it! “Not quite that spicy,” she said, dipping a second crisp, “but it’s still really good!” That would be really fun, though, if the salsa did make their ears smoke! She wondered what kind of magic one could use to do that… not that she planned to, just a “what if”. Maybe adding crushed-up pepper imps would do it? Those made smoke come out of people’s ears. But what did she know? She was useless at cooking! “Is that guacamole any good?”

"Probably," Edric replied brightly, allll of his attention still focused on the mountain of food. Er, plate. Plate of food. He squeezed one more little breadstick onto his tower and stole a look at whoever was talking to him. Space buns and a big smile were what he saw and Merlin, he nearly dropped his mountain-plate. Oh. Oh. Oh. She was cute! And a girl. A cute girl. Around his age. Oh Merlin Merlin Merlin.

He was slowly turning the color of the barbecued chicken wing on the top of his plate. He felt warm under his collar? Warm already? And he hadn't even eaten anything spicy yet!?!!

"I'm I'm I'm I'm...." well he intended to introduce himself but he was stammering too much and losing his grip on his mountain plate because she was making him nervous!!! She was probably judging his food choices now!!! Why was she looking at him!!!! "I'm going to sit down now," he declared far too loudly, plopping himself and his heavy mountain-plate at the nearest table.

SPOILER!!: FINNtastic

He was hungry, okay. Having the promise of food at this dance thing, Finn hadn't eaten beforehand. Leading to the easily foreseen consequence of hunger, and eating too fast. Halfway done with the sandwich by the time Mitsuki offered the glass of...something, with an unnaturally dark purple sheen. He finished his bite, and accepted the glass, eyeing it with something between suspicion and curiosity. He was thirsty, but the past three years had taught him that sometimes magical things had unexpected consequences. Like smoke coming out of your ears, or turning you into a canary.

He noticed Mitsuki's gaze drifting to another student, but didn't really mind. Plus, he had other friends, so obviously she had other friends too. Probably. He instead focused was he on trying to decipher what kind of drink might be this color. He really did not know, and sniffing the glass didn't provide any insight either. Its scent was unidentifiable as either good or bad or fruity or spicy. He took a sip, trying to identify it via taste now. Some sort of juice, maybe? Juice of some magical fruit he'd never seen or heard of?

When his friend's attention returned to him, he smiled brightly. "Thank you!" he said, both for the hypothetical compliment from her grandfather and for the unfamiliar beverage. "Um. Do you know what this is?" he asked, nodding towards the glass. "It doesn't taste like anything I know."

Mitsuki was quite partial to canary creams, for the record. She found the fleeting moment of confectionary transfigured flight quite pleasant. Also, the feathers left a delightful tickling sensation.

Still observing Luca, who did not appear to have happened upon any pudding, the Ravenclaw easily caught his smile. He had a nice one, she decided. There was a moment of hesitation, a processing period, before she reciprocated the gesture with a more muted version. Muted but still very much genuine. There would have been a slightly more enthusiastic one were he to have happened upon some pudding. She had little interest in brownies.

Eyes pulling away from Luca and his younger companion, Mitsuki resettled back on Finn and supposed that it was a compliment she had offered him. Grandpa, to be fair, tended to like everyone...but there was also a very special elevated circle he placed people who performed acts of kindness towards family. Provided sustenance, the sandwich, was one of those. Speaking of her sandwich, well, she had essentially gutted it and all that was left was the bread and it moistened by condiments. "I do not know the name," she paused and took a bite of the bottom bread, shrugging her shoulders at his question. But then continued and offered more thoughts, unprompted. "...but I taste blackberry and thyme."

The Professor of Transfiguration received a polite smile and a nod after asking for dip reviews. That was enough socialising with a teacher at a school dance, though, sorry Carton. She was already a total loser without adding that to the concoction.

Wow, Kiara had put a lot of thought behind her dress, clearly. Why hadn’t she thought of coming in Gryffindor colours???! “You look like a prom Queen.” Remy beamed. “Imagine if they did an award ceremony… you know… best dressed… best hair…” because sorry, but Remy would win best hair. She may or may not be fishing for hair compliments, by the way. Anyway, an award ceremony sounded like a missed opportunity for fun, to be honest.

She had also seen the dress that looked like a wedding cake. Yikes. Not to mention her own best friend who had made no great effort, but she didn’t mind that too much.

“Thanks,” she finally responded to Kiara’s compliment. “I don’t usually wear dresses, ever, so I thought I would look weird.” The blonde chuckled a little and dragged her heel across the floor. “Did you come with a date?” Remy asking the important questions, of course.

She pouted her lips with disappointment, but started on the salsa dip all the same. Kiara was right, it was really good. “Oh, the guacamole is HEAVENLY.” And on that note, Remy had gotten herself a plate and proceeded to load it up with one of everything on offer. Well, almost everything. She didn’t want to pop.

"Probably" wasn't quite as confident a response as she would have expected, but maybe it was a realistic one. 'Cause he was still piling on more even as she watched! Oh, or maybe he was done now since he was just staring? Lydia didn't break eye contact, eyebrows raised a little in surprise by the sudden staring contest.

Er, no, wait, he was going to a table. Well, she wasn't letting him go that easily! He hadn't exactly invited her to sit with him, but he also hadn't not invited her either. And she did want to know if he actually would eat everything on that plate. And, well, she needed a place to sit regardless. Might as well be with him since she still wanted to talk, not even considering the thought that he might not wanna talk to her.

Lydia added a few little sandwiches to her plate, grabbed a goblet of juice, and then claimed the seat across from the boy.

"So what's your favorite food?" she asked. Anyone who could eat that much food surely had a favorite. Maybe he was a food expert.

"Yeah, no problem," Phoenix said to the boy, before taking a bite of his own, second brownie. See? He could be cool. The first year shrugged lightly at the question, not exactly not having fun, but wouldn't say this was the time of his life either. It would be hard to say that feeling as overlooked as he just had been a few minutes ago. But it was whatever. "Sure, it's been a blast," he replied with a chuckle. "You?"

Actually, he was kind of glad to hear this other boy's admission. "I'm not so sure either. I'm not really into the dancing part but the food I can do," he added with another chuckle. He had approached it more like a party which were usually fun, depending. Maybe he'd check out the photo booth later too. "I'm Phoenix, by the way."