Closed It's A Date?

[Ethan Alexander]

Ethan had been confused but excited when he found Marnie's note in his bag. He had always liked her, since she usually took up most of the space in any conversation they had. Which he found comforting since he always struggled to find words most of the time. But he had never expected her to ask him to the dance. No one had ever done that before. He hadn't bothered to get new clothes before leaving for the year but he managed to find something presentable to wear, and even tried to tame his hair for the evening. He stood by the entrance of the great hall with his hands in his pockets waiting for her arrive. He wasn't sure what he would do after that, but he hoped Marnie would help fill in the gaps.

 

[Marnie Frogg]

Marnie had been thinking about tonight all week. And probably before that too, though that had been in a more frantic way that might have been brought on by pre-exam hysteria and by sheer virtue of having to wait for Ethan to actually find the note asking him to the ball before she'd know if he'd say yes. And against all odds, he had, and now Marnie had a bona fide date with a cute guy she'd spent half the semester thinking about since she'd ended up clinging to his hand during the haunted house at Halloween. Maybe she could get a repeat of that tonight she thought hopefully as she bounded down the stairs, though ideally without the spooky Halloween decor this time.

"Ethan hey wow you clean up nice I mean not that I didn't think you've could I've got eyes and stuff but I guess you don't always wear the mothman costume to school evens right though that would be pretty funny maybe we could make you a festive mothman with like tinsel for antennae or something it'd be pretty cute oh but uh no I like. I like this look better," Marnie said, trying not to grimace as her mouth ran away from her as usual. She knew she talked a lot, but it would be nice if for tonight she could at least say something cool or funny to impress Ethan. She'd already tried toning down her usual holiday look tonight into something that might come across as actually attractive, though she hadn't been able to resist the Christmas light necklace and matching Christmas embroidered bag to go with it.

 

[Ethan Alexander]

Ethan felt a wave of relief as Marnie came down the stairs. She looked great and awkwardly he had a hard time looking at her. He smiled awkwardly as she rambled about his Halloween costume. "Thanks and Christmas would probably be more fun with costumes." he agreed when she was done. "You'd think we could get a professor to dress up as Santa at least." he joked with a weak chuckle. "And you look great too. Really....great." he added before clearing his throat. He searched for better adjectives but failed. Instead he held out his arm and gestured to the rest of the dance.

 

[Marnie Frogg]

Marnie couldn’t help but beam when Ethan took her comments and rolled with it, she knew she’d been smitten with him for a good reason. She was certain both of their weird little brains would click together perfectly, she’d spent plenty of time when she was definitely mean tot be studying for exams imagining exactly that and was thrilled to find it might actually be true.

“Ohhh you’re so right can you imagine a Yule costume party maybe we should ask Professor Alcott-Ward I’d make the Arts Club do it but I’m trying to be fair to all the other creative arts and not just make everyone dress up in silly costumes Penny said it would be an abuse of my power anyway which I think if I’m gonna abuse it I could do a lot worse really,” she said brightly, emboldened by Ethan’s response and feeling much more optimistic about how tonight was going to go. “I think that new Astronomy Professor has the beard to pull of Santa… Or Professor Styx is old enough, but could you imagine,” she said with a breathless laugh, trying to cover the excited flutter her voice did when Ethan complimented her back and offered her his arm. “Thanks,” she said shyly, finding for once she couldn’t think of anything else to say, simply taking his arm and walking into the fray of the dance with him, focused solely on the line of warmth that was him standing next to her and wandering what on earth they were supposed to do now.

 

[Ethan Alexander]

Ethan grinned. "I think it's only an abuse of power if you force people." he pointed out and had to laugh at the idea of Styx in a fake beard. "I would use all my holiday wages to see that." he said seriously. As Marnie took his arm he tried not to think too hard about it even though he was very, very aware of it. Once inside he was distracted by the decorations and was struck by the realization he wasn't sure what to do. But he spotted the ice rink and nodded towards it. "Have you tried the skating before?"

 

[Marnie Frogg]

Marnie didn’t bother stifling a giggle at Ethan’s joke, warmed by how funny he was had he always been this funny? “Well he IS the Transfiguration professor maybe if we asked him really nicely in class he’d do it I mean it’s educational right it definitely seems like something that would come up in our NEWTs or something right?” She said, her joking tone stalling out somewhat as they got into the hall proper and both of them seemed to freeze for a moment. Marnie had never really done this before, she’d gone to dances with Emrys but they’d already been dating at that point, but she’d never had a first FIRST date at the actual ball itself.

There was a stretch of awkward silence as Marnie tried not to fidget with her necklace in case she jostled Ethan’s arm and he thought she wanted him to let go or something. She was already opening her mouth to try and fill the gap with something, anything, when Ethan pointed out the ice rink. “Oh I think once at a birthday party when I was a kid we went to the ice rink but I just held the wall the whole time my brother did try learning how to roller blade over the holidays once but I mostly just supervised since we never learnt how to stop and it was easier to just kinda grab him you know why uh- I mean do you want to?” Marnie said, her head filled with duelling images of her holding Ethan’s hand as he led her romantically across the ice versus the horrible image of her falling and flashing everyone when her dress flipped up. Chilling.

 

[Ethan Alexander]

Ethan smirked. He had a feeling Styx would use a silencing charm on them before he'd even let them get the question out. But he nodded along in agreement. He wasn't taking Transfiguration so he had no idea what would be on the NEWTs. With his free hand he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck as Marnie talked about skating. Even after all she said he wasn't sure if it would be something she'd like and when she turned the question on him he felt just as clueless. "We could." he said with a shrug. It sounded less scary than dancing if he was being honest. "I'm not very good but I could...hold your hand." he said before blushing. "To keep you steady." he added quickly.

 

[Marnie Frogg]

Marnie eyed the ice, still wary as she watched a few far more coordinated students skate past easily. Though there were a few skittish first years scuttling around in a group too so Marnie supposed she wouldn't be totally alone out there. She looked back at Ethan when he offered to hold her hand, feeling her face blush even as she found herself nodding. "Okay, yeah definitely, to keep me steady but if you let go and I fall down I'm taking you down with me far warning okay so please don't let go. So I don't fall over. Yeah," She said, walking right to the edge of the ice rink and taking a deep breath once they'd fitted themselves with skates, glancing at Ethan again shyly. "I already feel like I'm gonna fall over so maybe you can hold my hand now like falling over on the ice is one thing but falling over on solid ground is next level even for me right," she said, sticking out her hand hopefully.

 

[Ethan Alexander]

Ethan laughed as Marnie agreed to skate but with conditions. "That's fair." he agreed. "But if I fall down I'll try and spare you. Feel free to save yourself." he said with a grin. They walked over to the ice and he could feel the air cool as they put on some skates. He stood up wobbling but managed to make it the few steps to the ice. He held out his hand and gestured encouragingly. "Sure. Just hold on and take small steps."