Open Decked Out

[Marnie Frogg]

Marnie was practically giddy with the idea of a Christmas party at school. The clothes! The decorations! The presents! And, it also meant she'd managed to survive her first semester at school and got to go home for several whole weeks too. Honestly, Marnie hadn't done too well in her classes, too excited to really get any proper work done, but she'd had a load of fun so she wasn't exactly bothered by it. And tonight was definitely about even more fun.

Marnie had donned her Christmas sweater, a project she'd started a few years ago and had been adding to every year since. It wasn't even close to it's full potential of garishness, a new string of candy canes having been added this year to join the dangling tinsel and enchanted lights that already blinked up from the stitched fabric. She let out an excited yip when she spotted the big tree in the middle of the hall, head practically buried in the branches immediately as she investigated some of the ornaments. "Ohh that's neat, the turtle doves are enchanted to move, hello little doves," she cooed, giggling as the doves cooed back.

 

[Michael Watson]

Michael hadn't initially planned on going to the Yule Ball. It seemed far too fancy and over the top for someone like him, and he didn't have a suit or anything. But he figured it was probably a good thing to do at the end of semester, before going back home for the break. He didn't have a suit or anything, instead just rocking up in a clean school shirt and plain black pants, deciding to at least wear his Ravenclaw tie to try and look like he was putting in something of an effort. He wasn't sure his mother would be too happy with his class results, but he though he'd done a reasonable job, considering he'd been so focused on getting better at Quidditch.

He spotted Ethan and Emmanuel over at the side and was going to go say hello but was distracted by the site of perhaps the most ornately decorated Christmas sweater he'd ever seen. His mum had a Christmas sweater she'd pull out each year, although the weather here wasn't really suitable for it. Taking a closer look, he saw it was on a girl in his year he vaguely recognized but hadn't really spoken to before. "Hey," he said, casually. "I just wanted to say your sweater is awesome." Was it a bit too much? Almost certainly, but it was spirited, and it was something different, and he could certainly appreciate that.

 

[Marnie Frogg]

Turning quickly at the sound of someone's voice, Marnie knocked her head against one of the branches, scrambling to avoid an avalanche of pine needles and displaced ornaments as she did so. "Oh, thank you! I made it myself, well most of it I would have loved to have knitted it all myself but I just added stuff to it my mum actually gave it to me for Christmas like three years ago and then I thought it needed more tinsel cause everything needs more tinsel honestly it's a shame that you're only really allowed to use tinsel around Yule it's like glitter on a string who wouldn't want to see it all the time," she said excitedly, moving to pulling up some of the tinsel on her sweater before quickly shifting to try and juggle a few ornaments around her shoulders to keep them from slipping off their branches.

She was practically being eaten by the lower branches of the big tree now, now that she minded, though she was very close to tripping on a few of the presents around her feet. "If you want I could make you one of your own or well really it'd take me forever you to like make you make you one but if you bring me a sweater I could totally start adding stuff on for you even if you don't like tinsel I could put other things on there like this year I put candy canes and now everything smells like peppermint so it's pretty sweet do you want one?" she asked, moving to try and tug off a candy cane from the string she'd attached this morning without unraveling everything else.

 

[Michael Watson]

The sweatered girl spoke so fast Michael could barely keep up, but she was spirited and enthusiastic and he certainly couldn't fault that. He half thought she'd make a great commentator though he suspected sport wouldn't be the type of thing to keep her interest. A smile crossed his face at the thought of her commentating Quidditch, though. That would be great listening. "Yeah, tinsel does make things a bit more exciting," he agreed, although his brow furrowed as he noticed she seemed to be getting more and more entangled with the tree.

She was still talking, though, and Michael didn't really want to be rude and cut her off, as he'd been taught that was something you just didn't do. "Uh, that'd be pretty good, actually," he admitted, thinking it would be pretty fun to wear next Yule Ball. "Maybe not the candy canes, though." Probably meant ants would swarm, or it would get a bit sticky and gross. "Do you, um, need a hand?" He wasn't exactly very strong, especially with his small frame, but he reached his arms out to either catch her or to disentangle her from the tree, perhaps a bit of both.

 

[Marnie Frogg]

Marnie beamed when the boy agreed with her about tinsel, glad to have an ally in her garland appreciation. "It does right! I wonder if I could convince my roommates to let me put some up in our dorm year round they're all pretty nice so I doubt they'd mind I managed to convince them to let us paint a group mural in our room too which was mostly just writing our names but I really like it personally I hope they don't wipe it off when we leave though speaking of your name's Michael right I've seen you in Herbology and Transfiguration and I always like remembering people with other M names cause we're like name neighbors!" Marnie said excitedly, getting slightly distracted and nearly tripping over a brightly wrapped box when one of the enchanted dove ornaments she'd been admiring before cooed in her ear.

"Oh- yes, sorry thank you I got a bit excited about the decorations as you can see but there's some really cool ones in here I wish I could see the ones up top better," she said, grateful when Michael offered a steadying hand, grabbing onto it and trying to leverage herself forward. She was a bit bigger than Michael so hopefully he had his feet under him as she tried to pull herself forward out of the tree more. "Are you sure about the candy canes though I think they add a nice touch though maybe I can figure out a way to make your sweater smell like peppermint without the lollies ooh or we could make it smell like cinnamon or hot chocolate or maybe just pine that's a festive scent right I guess my sweater already kinda smells like pine but that's cause I'm like right next to the tree oh wait I hope there's no sap on my sweater," she said suddenly, twisting to try and check the back of her shirt, heedless of their precarious balancing situation.

 

[Michael Watson]

Michael planted his feet on the ground as well as he could, like he was preparing to take a catch from above even though the girl was kind of on the same level as him and decidedly not falling from a greater height. But he had the right idea. He hoped. It was nice that her dormmates all got along. He kind of got along with a couple of his, he thought? Not the gobstones boy though. Michael wasn't stupid enough to try and bother him. When she mentioned she was an M name recognition flashed in his mind. "Ah, Marnie, right?" Since the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs had more classes together he was better at picking the others in those houses than he was with the Gryffindors or Slytherins. "One day we'll be able to make ourselves levitate, probably?" Truthfully, he still didn't know a whole lot about magic. His mum had kept it all on the down low until his own magic started to show, and from there his education had been a bit rushed in the leadup to Hogwarts. He could fly a broom, but he didn't think that would go over well in here. Not with so many people around.

He stumbled a little as he tried to help Marnie out, once again cursing that he hadn't hit his growth spurt yet. He always got held on the sidelines at rugby, like 'oh maybe when you're a bit bigger it's just a bit too dangerous for you now'. Maybe he could magic himself taller if he didn't grow soon. He stumbled a little more as she twisted, desperately trying to regain his footing and barely managing to, grateful that he was at least pretty coordinated. "Yeah, without the lollies it would be pretty good, I think. Smell much better than a boy's dorm." Club change rooms were bad enough, though he usually didn't notice too much if they won the game. It always smelled worse when they lost. Michael didn't dare to move too much, though, fearful of slipping on the decorations on the floor and sending them both toppling. One slip and he would probably lose his footing completely.