Her last Yule Ball....

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde Lindstrom wandered up the stairs from the dungeons to the Great Hall. Tonight was her final Yule Ball and she figured it would be better to go than to spend the entire night in her pajamas in the dorm. Having picked out her best new dress and highest heels, she walked slowly into the hall. It was decorated beautifully as always, but tonight was bittersweet. If Shane, her boyfriend, was able to attend with her, she would have loved it more. He didn't go to school at Hogwarts, instead he was home schooled by his mother.

Walking around the room, Hilde finally found a table to sit at that was not filled with annoying first years or Hufflepuffs. There was only two Hufflepuffs that had never annoyed her, and both of them had graduated. She sat, watching the couples dance, wondering if there was anyone worthy of talking to that was not paired off like the majority of her friends were tonight.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline Richard hadn’t attended a Yule Ball the past few years but with this being her last year she felt that she should at least attempt to go out and enjoy herself with a few of her friends and make the most of her last few months as a student at Hogwarts New Zealand and try to make some more memories worth having when she left this place. Not that she didn’t already have some good memories but she always expected that her final year should be the one to remember and she felt that she could have a few more memories to go along with what she already had. She had decided to come to the Yule Ball tonight with her, again, best friend – Thomas Smith. It was both their last year and with everything they had gone through in their early years of Hogwarts New Zealand, they figured that they should use tonight as a final way of putting it all behind them, not that it came up much anymore but it was still there.

Once Joceline had gotten ready she made her way up from the Dungeons to the Great Hall, taken aback by the beauty of the place – it was still hard to get used to every year. She had planned with Thomas to meet him at the Great Hall whenever they both got there and there was no pressure to stay with each other the whole night as they both wanted to go have some fun with their own separate friends. For now though Joceline couldn’t find Thomas so she made her way over to the refreshments table and got herself a drink as she looked out at the dance floor. She couldn’t help but smile a bit, everyone looked so pretty and so happy and for once, she was happy. Sure there were things in her life she wished were better but nothing to get her down – especially tonight. Walking along the floor she arrived at the tables and noticed a familiar brunette. “Evening, Hilde.” she said to her fellow Slytherin Seventh Year.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde was watching the couples floating around on the dance floor when suddenly she heard her name. Looking up, she saw her housemate, Joceline. "Hey Joce. How are you tonight? Cool dress." She smiled, then turned her eyes back to the dancefloor. "These things are so much more interesting with a date, I don't know why I bothered coming," she said with a small laugh. Hilde spotted people around the room that she knew, dancing and having fun. "Are you meeting up with anyone or going solo like me?"

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline smiled softly as Hilde looked up at her and complimented her dress. Joceline always loved taking pride in her appearance. Sure it may sound slightly conceded and lacking self esteem, which to be fair she did lack in tenfold, but she believed that one’s appearance makes an impression on people that she comes into contact with. Even on a day to day occasion she would take a while on getting ready in the morning just so she would look like it all came natural to her and that she didn’t put too much work into it, even though she did. Then when it came to balls – like tonight, well let’s just say that it was good that she had no work to do today or she never would have been ready. “Thank you. Love yours.” she said softly, her voice, even around friends, was still somewhat low due to her shyness. She was actually pretty proud of her find in dress this year. She had wanted for go for a long, more formal style dress like some people were wearing but this was far too pretty to pass down and it worked perfectly for her small frame. “I’m great. How are you?” she asked in return. “I can’t believe this is out last Yule Ball here, can you?” she asked, still in slight shock.

Joceline let her eyes fall on to the dancefloor as she followed Hilde’s gaze. Joceline felt a bit sorry for Hilde as she didn’t have a date to come with tonight. Hilde and Joceline weren’t best friends but she knew she had a boyfriend, who didn’t go to this school. It must have been hard for her to be here without him. Sure Joceline didn’t have a boyfriend but she would have felt the same. When Ivan and herself had started...well whatever it was they had going on, she had thought of what it would be like to have him attend the ball with her but they weren’t like that so it could have been awkward. Although this year, she had the next best thing to Ivan – his twin brother and Joceline’s former major crush. “Thomas and myself came together but just as friends. So we can still go our separate ways and see a few friends and dancing with whomever we wish. It’s just so we can be sure of at least one dance at our last Yule Ball.” She said, trying her best to explain the strange deal the two best friends had for tonight. Although it may be strange, it worked well – Joceline was glad that she wouldn’t be a complete loner on the night of her last Yule Ball and have at least one sure dance, as she hadn’t shared one with a boy in a few years when she and Brandon had attended together.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

"I think the fact that this is our last one is the only reason I bothered showing up," Hilde said with a smile. She turned in her chair and faced Joceline better. It would have been an amazing night if her boyfriend, Shane, would have been able to come. Soon enough, she would be home and then off to spend some time with him over the holiday, but even that time wouldn't be enough for her. Graduation could not come soon enough for her. Hilde was more than ready to be done with school and on to the rest of her life. It was going to be perfect to be able to go off and see Shane whenever she wanted instead of only on those weekends that they were allowed off the castle grounds. "At least everyone looks pretty decent tonight," she stated, then a first year walked past in the most ridiculous outfit that she had ever seen. "Let me rephrase that. MOST everyone looks decent. I guess they don't teach fashion sense until the second half of first year." Hilde couldn't help but smirk, knowing that her voice had been loud enough that the girl would have heard her. Her mean side was fully functioning tonight and if she offended the girl, she just could not care. She was a Slytherin for a reason after all.

Her eyes turned back to the dance floor again. "I'm glad you were able to come with Thomas. I came with a friend last year, but Mark just had to go and graduate." She rolled her eyes for dramatic effect, but was joking. She knew that Mark Stone was a year older and that he couldn't help graduating, same with Xavier Snow. Having guy friends to attend with was always better than flying solo at an event like this. "I have been having fun doing some 'people watching' at least. Its been enjoyable seeing the different dresses and who came with who. We will have tons of gossip floating around tomorrow from what I have seen."

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline nodded her head softly as Hilde told her that the only she bothered showing up was because this was their last Yule Ball. It wasn’t great that she only showed up for the sake of it being her last one and not going because she wanted too. Then again that was just Joceline’s opinion and her opinion was not always something people agreed with. Although at times she didn’t care whether people wanted to hear her opinion or not and she just gave it to them because she was entitled to say whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Tonight, though, she decided not to say anything to Hilde. She didn’t want to possibly upset Hilde because the girl was a Slytherin and no matter how nice a Slytherin could be to friends, they were vicious when they got angry. Not that she was saying that Hilde would get mad at her opinion but she didn’t want to chance possibility of ruining tonight in any shape or form. When Hilde moved her seat in Joceline’s direction she took a seat beside so she could be comfortable and not make Hilde have to look up at her because Merlin knows that reaps havoc on your neck when you did it for too long – she knew. Flatting her dress slightly as she sat down and rested her feet so she could dance comfortably when Thomas got here because no matter how often she wore heels her feet were always sure to get sore when she stood on her feet for too long and wasn’t moving around at least even a little bit. When Hilde commented how the people were dressed tonight Joceline nodded her head in agreement. If this was her last Yule Ball, which it was to be fair, she wanted to be sure that there was no-one pictured in the Yearbook looking at least half decent. Then again any of the less than appropriate looking people would only make her look better so at least there was a few, one of which happened to walk by the two Seventh Year Slytherins. At Hilde’s comment Joceline laughed into her hand but loud enough for the girl to hear. “Oh no! That’s just too funny. Did she get dressed in the dark?” she asked rhetorically, some of the outfits did look quite lame tonight and Joceline almost felt ashamed for people with no fashion sense.

Joceline’s eyes flickered back and forth from the dancefloor and Hilde. When she mentioned about a boy, Mark, graduating last year she wasn’t sure how to take it but the eye roll helped her decide that a simple scoff would suffice. “Yeah, I’m just glad Thomas and myself have put everything behind us. Merlin the drama that you go through in your years here..” she dragged off, shaking her head at how silly she was. “It’s hard to believe we could ever be that young and silly.” she said with a light laugh, wondering if Hilde could relate. “Ohhh. I always love a good bit of gossip.” she said, her interest spiked as Hilde mentioned gossip. She missed her post as the ‘Gossip Guru’ from the School newspaper. She gave it up after she clearly wasn’t needed when Isabella started her own gossip magazine, she fumed slightly but quickly forgot about it, it wasn’t worth getting upset over tonight.