Prepare for Trouble

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan shook his head when looking at his suit in the mirror and smirked. Uncle Eryk had done it again. At least this time he was getting the thing he wanted for Christmas. Because he hadn't planned on going to the Yule Ball, and therefore didn't ask someone to be his date, he asked his best friend to come with him so they could spend more time together before going back home for the holidays. He was curious to see what she was going to wear for the ball, and figured that she was probably going to look very silly since he had never seen her in a dress before. He waited for Andi at the entrance of the Gryffindor common room so that they could walk down to the Great Hall together.

 

[Andi Forstrom]

Andi had not expected nor intened to go to the yule ball that year. She was awkward, lanky and clumsy. Hardly the kind of person to parkate in an event that involved fancy dresses, suits, and dancing without falling dramatically to the floor. In fact, she had expected to do the exact opposite that night, and explore the castle with her best friend Aodhan when most of the students and professors were busy with the ball. It was an opportunity for the pair to spend time together before the holidays, and run around to discover more secret passageways and hidden rooms without fear of getting caught. The time they did have together before the holidays was precious and Andi thought that the opportunity to run amuck while everyone else in the school was distracted was too golden to pass up.

But no, instead, Aodhan had asked her to go to the ball with him as his date. Meaning she needed to source a dress in the very last minute, apply make up, style her hair and wear high heeled shoes for the first time in her entire life. Much to everyone's surprise, with the help of her dorm mates Andi had somehow managed to pull it all off and look like the typical girl she wasn't. But even when everything else about her appearance was well done, it did not change that she felt like a baby giraffe learning how to walk every time she stepped forward in her heels. Though she tried not to let the shoes bother her as she left the common room, immediately locking eyes with Aodhan. She approached him with a relieved smile on her face, and could not help but notice how much better he looked in a suit than she expected. "Hey! You ready to see what this ball is all about?" She said as she approached him. She then stepped to the side so she could link her arm in his and allow him to lead the way.​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan turned around with he heard an all too familiar voice coming from behind him, and could feel his jaw dropping when he saw his best friend standing in front of him in her red dress. Because it had all been last minute, Aodhan hadn't discussed what they were going to wear with Andi, so half expected the girl to look like her normal self, or maybe very silly. But this he definitely had not expected. ''Y-You look pretty.'' he said when they linked arms, and lead them down the stairs towards the Great Hall.

 

[Andi Forstrom]

Andi wasn't going to admit that one of the only reasons she linked arms with her friend and allowed him to lead her to the hall was because she wanted him to stabilize her balance. She did not trust herself to descend down the many stairs from their common room alone while in heels without hurting herself, or worse, someone else. She felt like a fish out of water while dressed so formally, and it didn't help that Aodhan complimented her so genuinely. But what did help was his company allowing her to arrive to the hall unscathed and even a little confident in what were such uncomfortable shoes. "Phew! That was a mission!" Andi said after finally arriving to hall with her friend. She unlinked their arms and looked around the room, figuring out what they could do with the night. The dance floor was pretty heavily occupied, and though Andi felt more confident wearing her heels than before, she wasn't near confident enough to start dancing in them.

Her attention was instead drawn to the snack table, which she made a beeline for after wrapping her hand around Aodhan's wrist so she could drag him behind her. The table had plenty of different snacks to try, but the bowl of what looked to be chocolate fudge cubes looked the most appetizing. Andi let go of Aodhan's hand and picked a piece of fudge, putting it in her mouth to savor the taste. "This stuff is good." She said, then picking up an entire handful of the fudge and shoving it into her mouth. Though she was dressed fancy for that night, it didn't mean she was going to act fancy. It simply wasn't in her nature, and especially not when chocolate fudge was involved.​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan chuckled at Andi's comment and looked down at the girl's feet. ''How are you holding up? Those shoes look really uncomfortable.'' he replied back. At moments like this he was glad that he didn't have to wear heels. Aodhan hadn't been paying attention as to what Andi was looking at since he was still admiring the transformation of the Great Hall, so when she grabbed a hold of his wrist and dragged him with her, he almost fell over. ''What's so-'' But before the boy could finish his sentence he saw where his friend had lead them to. He smiled at the sight of the snack table, and grinned at Andi who'd almost immediately stuffed her mouth with what looked like fudge. He himself went for a bowl of what seemed to be white chocolate. Aodhan loved white chocolate, so when he had the opportunity to picking up a handful of little chocolates and put them in the pockets of his trousers, he did just so - not caring about whether or not they would eventually melt away. After making sure that his pockets were full of chocolates, the Gryffindor stuffed a lot of them in his mouth, grinning widely as he looked at his best friend.

 

[Andi Forstrom]

Andi had been too distracted by the snack table and shoving as many squares of fudge into her mouth as possible to answer Aodhan's question about her shoes. Though she eventually remembered, and looked to him to answer it after she'd swallowed her first helping of fudge. "They're horrible! But one of the girls in my dorm insisted that I'm supposed to wear them, so I did." Why anyone would choose to put their feet through so much pain, and allow themselves to feel like walking was unnatural for the sake of their appearances she couldn't understand. But alas, she was wearing the heels anyway and intended to keep them on until she needed to walk up the many stairs to the Gryffindor common room. At that point, Andi wanted to prove to herself she could wear them for the entire ball instead of wimping out and taking them off the first time she had the opportunity. "Anyway, are those white chocolates?" She asked, diverting her gaze from Aodhan and to the bowl he'd gone for. She noticed he'd put some of the sweets into his pockets, and added "Save some for me." while nudging him playfully with her elbow. She then looked to a different bowl on the table that was filled with candy canes and said "Go for those ones next." ​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

For a moment Aodhan had completely forgotten what Andi was talking about. ''Right, and since when do you listen to other people telling you what to do?'' he chuckled, remembering when she said that she didn't want to go with him in the Forbidden Forest after the curfew because it could be 'dangerous' in there during night time. Aodhan nodded his head when his friend asked if the bowl he was slowly empting was filled with white chocolates He grinned and said. ''Only if you save some of those for me.'' nodding at the bowl with chocolate fudges. He didn't really care about the dance floor behind him, or the fact that other students tried to get some of the sweets as well. He was going to do everything his uncle had told him not to do while attending a ball so formal as this one. The Gryffindor moved over to the bowl Andi was looking at and smiled brightly. ''Aye aye, captain.'' the boy said jokingly before he began stuffing the candy canes in his pockets as well.

 

[Andi Forstrom]

Andi scoffed at Aodhan's comment, frowning as she responded "Since my best friend asked me to go to the yule ball and I needed to be the girly girl I'm not." She couldn't understand what else he had expected when he asked her to be his date. She wasn't about to show up in her normal clothes, or a shirt, tie, and tux when every other girl she knew had found beautiful, flattering dresses, spent hours styling their hair and applying make up. Catering to that norm, and wearing heels felt like her only option, especially now she was at the ball and couldn't spy any other girls dressed differently for the night. She looked from the bowl of white chocolates, to the bowl of fudge while her frown turned to a playful smirk, saying "I can't exactly put these in my non-existent pockets, can I? Guess you need to fight me to try some of them." as she picked another handful and ate it in front of him. She nearly forgot about the bowl of candy canes in the process of consuming the fudge, but quickly smiled when Aodhan began putting the contents of the bowl in his pockets. It was smart of them to make a stockpile of candy to eat later and she was glad that Aodhan was able to fill his pockets with as much candy as possible while they still had the chance. ​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan shook his head while laughing at the girl's response. ''You think I like wearing these clothes?'' the Gryffindor asked his best friend, wondering if she truly thought that he enjoyed dressing all nicely like his uncle did every single day. Aodhan looked down at his own shoes and chuckled.Instead of wearing the polished brown shoes that came with his uncle's package Aodhan decided to wear his old, dirty, and pretty much broken pair of sneakers because they were way more comfortable. When the boy was sure that'd be no more room in his pocket for the canes he looked up to see if he would notice any of his other friends, but couldn't spot no one he thought looked familiar. His smile widened when Andi began to stuff her mouth with even more fudge, and he immediately dropped the candy canes still in his hand. ''Have it your way.'' he told his friend, moving back to her so he could get some, too. Aodhan pushed the girl gently and playfully and smirked while reaching for the bowl.