Not at the Ball

[Willow Holland]

Willow was with her guitare again but this time it wasn't that sad what she was playing. She was imagening what it would have been like if she would have taken the stage that night of the ball at HS. She was thumping on the Gipson that had been modifide to work off magic instead of electicity. All the while she wonderd what Abbey and Brandon where doing. Willow was not going and was at the highest point of the castile to not even hear what was going on the ground floor.

"She should have stayed away from friends
She should have had more time to spend
She should have died when she was born
She should have worn the crown of thorns

She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son

She should have made her mother proud
She should have stood out in the crowd
She should have had another chance
She should have fallen on her stance

She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son

She should have stayed away from friends
She should have had more time to spend
She should have died when she was born
She should have worn the crown of thorns

She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son
She should have... been a son"

The beat was upbeat to the point where Willow was bobbing her head to what she was playing, her shoulder langth hair falling over her face. Tapping her foot to on the widow still. Willow felt happyer now. A little happyer but still it was better than the compleatly hollow feeling that she had been growing used to. She wondered if anyone would come up here when the ball was going on down stares. Maybe next year she would try and gather up a band again. Maybe not. She wasn't that much better come to think of it.

Willow had even bothered to run a brush though her hair for tonight. That and dress a little more femen. At the moment Willow was wareing black pinstriped pants that bellowed out at the knee so that it they looked a bit like a skirt when she wasn't moving. A crimson button up shirt seemed to be streatched over her top showing how she had developed over the last year but she kept hidden under her baggy clothes. The sleeves where soppoed to come down to her wrists but she didn't like it so she rolled them up so she could play more comfterbly. Shiny black dress shoes compleated this. Simple but effective in making Willow look more like a girl.

 

[Brandon Coffield]

Brandon had left the Great Hall with about as much grace as he could manage, his head was pounding now from all the music and all he wanted to do was get away somewhere quiet. He didn't bother heading back to the common room incase other party revellers decided to head back as well. Instead he made his way to the North Tower expecting it to be empty but as he neared the top, he heard a familiar voice singing away. Rolling his eyes he smiled as he stepped around the corner into view.
"Don't you ever stop singing?" he grinned at her as he moved into the tower, "How come every time I'm craving peace and quiet, I come up against you and your music?"

 

[Willow Holland]

Willow played the last note, letting it linger then put the guitare down. "It's you that's keeps bumping into me while I feel like singing. I had a sort of feeling that you'd be showing up." She said with a half smile. She slipped off the still that she was sitting on and leaned on the wall her arms crossed. "So what does bring you up here. I would have assumed that the night would have been going perfictly for you." She said eyeing Brandon. He should have been chaced after with vigor the way he was dressed.

 

[Brandon Coffield]

Brandon smiled at her as he removed the navy jacket of his suit and undid the top button of his shirt. The tie he had pulled off as he walked up the steps, his dark blue dress robes he had left behind in the Great Hall not particularly interested in going back to get them, they were bound to still be there in the morning.
"It was getting a touch claustrophobic in there and the music was pretty lame. Maybe you should go down and play them something" he grinned, tossing his jacket onto a window ledge and rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. He leaned against one of the walls, one foot crossing over the other as he shuffed his hands into his pockets looking extremely laid back.
"It didn't go exactly how I thought it would" he ran a hand through his short cropped hair, "I actually didn't have any huge expectations of how it would go but I ..." he stopped his sentence short and looked at Willow.
"So what brings you up here? other than having a feeling that i'd show up of course".

 

[Willow Holland]

Willow shook her head. "I told you I was going to be up here. Riding out the Ball until I was sure that the people that had gone to the ball where asleep. Well most of them. There are some that stay out most of the night but that's when things are usually getting heavy." She said shrugging her shoulders. "Oh and before you say anything about the feeling I had it was purely deduced. I mean why would a girl agree to go to the ball with a gem of a guy, as you discribed yourself last time, such as you as only friends?" She asked. There was nothing in her voice that suggested that she was flirting or even showing any intrest. Willow moved her foot a little making the pants bellow a bit. It really did look like a skirt when still.

 

[Brandon Coffield]

Brandon shrugged as Willow talked about the revellers that were possibly still out celebrating and those who had the sense to leave earlier. He wished heartily now that he had never gone to the stupid thing, it had been fun enough to start with but once a certain boy and girl had made an entrance, Brandon honestly felt he may not have existed for all the attention that Joceline payed him after that. His feelings weren't actually hurt just his pride, ok so they had gone as friends but he had stayed with her had paid her compliments and given her food and drink, danced with her been nothing but the perfect date, the perfect escort at least.
"Well decent guys end up finish last or so the saying goes doesn't it?" he frowned as he scouched down on to the cold floor of the Northern Tower. He wasn't going to admit to Willow that he should just have joined her up here for the entire night.

 

[Willow Holland]

Willow studied Brandon. It was a habbet now that she didn't talk much and when she didn she usually ended up putting her foot in her mouth. "It seems to be the case with you right now. I wouldn't say you finished last though. At least you went with someone. As did Abbey it seems. I just hope that boy is treating her right or I will have to come after him hang him by the anckles for a bit." She said moving her index finger like she would a wand. Willow wasn't that good at most spells but she was good at jinxes and curses. Living with a Death Eater aunt tended to leave one with knowlage of that kind. "Do you like her?" Willow asked out right. She was never one to hold back a question once it hit her head. Tiptoeing only lead giving the person a chance to come up with a lie.

 

[Brandon Coffield]

Brandon thought about the question, he looked up at Willow and found he didn't want to answer it though. He had really enjoyed the beginning of his evening with Joceline, she had blown his mind away. She was so beautiful, of course she had only wanted him as a friend. He really shouldn't have expected anything else. Getting up from the ground he looked down at the suit he was wearing and frowned. This was just bloody crazy, he was only thirteen what did he know about girls and stuff.
"What does it matter Will, I could say I like her but at the end of the day she didn't like me. So that's that, end of story. Should have spent the day studying instead of getting myself done up in this mad looking getup".

He sounded more aggrieved with himself than anything, well and truly ticked off. How was he to know that she had only gone with him to the ball so that she could see another boy there. Girls were daft creatures.

 

[Willow Holland]

Willow let out a short laugh. She hadn't expected something like that to come from Brandon. Then again she didn't really expect anything from anyone anymore. The few people she was talking to didn't know her that well and that how she wanted it to stay. "I though Emo was my thing. Maybe it will take time. If she's a first year or even older she my think she likes this boy but really she's just confusing platonic feelings from something else. At least that's my opinion, not to be taken to heart when it's coming from the girl that spends most of her time reading graphic novels and playing morbid songs on her guitar." She said. There was some emotion to her face now. Willow seemed warmer. Willow moved back to the window but didn't sit on the window still. Instead she placed her elbows on the frame and looked out into the night. Even now when lights where turned out the grounds still looked beautiful.

 

[Brandon Coffield]

Brandon followed her to the window frame and copied her action of just leaning on it and looking out across the gardens and sky. The night may have been dark but there was enough light from the stars and moon to give the grounds of the castle a beautiful glow.
"Things look really simple and easy from up here don't they?" he muttered though he wasn't really expecting an answer to that, "she's only first year so I guess it was too much to ask for her to stay with the boy who escorted her. Courtesy would have called for it and damned politeness but you never know the way some people are raised do you?"
He sounded more glib now but at least he nudged her playfully and gave her a mischievous wink.
"Thank goodness you were here, I probably would have spent the night over in the owlery boring them senseless instead".

 

[Willow Holland]

Willow nodded at what Brandon said first. It seemed like anything was possible from up here. The possibilities for her had closed only reasently so she could still remember that feeling. The world seemed as breath taking as a packed stage with nothing but the music to worry about.
"True but again you know it may have been something very emotional. You know how normal girls are. I'm thankful sometimes that I have emptied out some." She said. Brandon seemed to be feeling better. He nudged her which made her do it back for once a full smile on her face. "Well it was either listen to you or stare at the four walls of my dorm room again and listening to Hillery talk about some boy. Really older girls do not get any better." She said shaking her head. Willow wondered had she not been shattered if she would have grown to be something like that. Willow had been a tomboy at HS but would have the other girls there influenced her into become more like them? Willow stopped wondering. She could never have that life back.