The First Ball Ever

[Victoire Fontaine]

When Victoire had first heard about the Yuleball she had thought of it as just a christmas dinner where everyone wore slightly fancier clothes and there was a little bit of dancing. That was afterall exactly what she was used to. What happened in her old school. But this was different, Hogwarts was always different. This school was not what she'd expected at all, so after talking with some of the other girl's in her year, she'd very quickly realised that it was not at all what she was used to. She had to in the end ask her parents to send her a smart dress that she could wear. Her parents whom she assumed were still getting used to the owl mail had very promptly been able to send back a dress that she'd bought for her mother's friend's wedding, which she hadn't in the end been able to go to. It was a smart and elegantly looking blue dress. Victoire had stared at it for quite some time, before venturing to find an older student who helped her turn the dress from blue to a nice deep Gryffindor red. It was now that deep red colour, and the young girl could not be happier about it. She had put more effort in her hair, and it now mostly sat in tamed curls on one shoulder, held together with the use of a number of curby grips and a lot of hairspray. She was twirling in the mirror. Wearing small kitten heels, and just enjoy the way the dress moved when she spun around. The way it floated up and twirled with her body. She hadn't ever thought of herself as really a beautiful girl, she was a scruffy and messy girl who was more focused on her studies than anything else. This was a change. She had chosen to not wear any make up besides a light amount of mascara just to give her eyelashes a little better look. Victoire thought, that for once she did look truly beautiful. She was thought really that she looked just like her mum had at this age. Her mother she felt had just been so much more beautiful and elegant than she could ever be, but in the deep red dress she felt as beautiful as she thought her mum had been, and was.

Once Victoire was all ready the girl heading down all the steps to the Great Hall. She took careful steps, since there were a lot of stairs and she didn't want to ruin this dress. She wasn't interest in breaking an ankle when she was just about to be going home. Well, her new home in Australia. It would be nice she realised to spend the holiday with her family but she was going to miss Hogwarts while she was away. It wasn't like Victoire had really been given too much time to get used to Australia before she'd been thrust into this magical world. Happily the girl arrived at the Great Hall, and just stood in the middle of the entrance in awe of the place. Her last school had been a huge fan of all the christmas things, though they did things a little different she gathered than the people in New Zealand. For one, the weather outside was never that nice around Christmas. Which was a big difference from this. Where it was nice. The hall was just incredible to her that she just found herself really unable to move. The bright eyes moved from decoration to decoration. From couple to couple, table to table. Everything about it was just so stunning, and Victoire just didn't understand why more people weren't actually paying attention to it. Were they not seeing what she was seeing? People seemed to be glancing once and the continuing on. Were they seeing a different hall from her. Noticing that she was in the way, the girl quickly headed in and moved to stand right next to the door. Out of the way, but still close to the entrance. She was attending alone, but she was feeling incredible. She felt beautiful, the hall look beautiful. Even if she spent the entire night alone, the young Gryffindor knew she would be happy. She headed to the first empty table and just took a seat. She didn't pay much attention to who else was around her, and instead just kept her gaze moving from place to place. Everything to her was just stunning. Even though she'd been in the magical world for months, everything about it amazed her. There was nothing that did not. She was in constant awe of what students and teachers could do. There seemed to be endless possibilities. Everything was just so much more than she had ever seen before and what she could've possibly imagined. Victoire had never seen anything like this ever in her life.
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[Jarek Speed]

Oh sweet Merlin, Jarek's parents were going to murder him when they see how poorly he had performed in his first year exams! They were usually supportive of their son but there were too many P's to even pretend that he had put any effort into his studies. Yep, they were going to be very disappointed in him indeed since everyone knew he could do better.

Jarek shook his head, as if attempting to shake his thoughts out of his head, whilst fiddling with his dress robes. He didn't want to dwell on that right now as tonight was the Yule Ball. Jarek's parents had sent him smart, navy dress robes for the event which fitted him nicely and had clearly cost them a fair amount of galleons which wasn't helping his cause. He smiled in the mirror to check that there were no bits of food stuck between his teeth then left his dorm for the Yule Ball.

He made his way down to the Great Hall but stopped dead in his tracks as he set eyes on the decorations for the Yule Ball. The Great Hall was impressive without any decorations with a ceiling which simulated the sky alone. But for the Yule Ball the four long tables had gone and the whole thing had been decorated as an ice palace. Suddenly the ceiling suddenly wasn't the most impressive thing in the room.

"Wow" Jarek exclaimed, he wasn't alone in taking a moment to marvel at the decorations, "Not bad! Did you expect the Yule Ball to look this nice?!" He asked the girl standing next to him who, like him, appeared to have no date accompanying her. That was unless she was waiting for them.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire couldn't believe the way the hall was. How much effort had gone into making it look so amazing. She wondered what spell it took to do that. How cool would that be really. She was really thinking that if the headmistress did that too, it was incredibly impressive, or if it was just that the ceiling had been enchanted once and it didn't need to be again. All in all, it was definitely one of the most interesting things about school. She couldn't help but always be amazed by everything that was this school. Victoire was always impressed, she hardly even needed much encouragement to be impressed by the school. Everything was just perfect. She couldn't believe how amazing it all was. The young Gryffindor still mostly couldn't believe that this entire magical world existed right next to her old muggle world. That her parents would never be able to experience what all this magic was. It was incredible. She liked all the spells they'd learned during the semester despite not having really learned too much. She had some issues in this first year. She wanted to do well, but it was hard, when she was new to the entire world, and while learning all that, was still picking up english. It was hard. She hadn't done as well as she could've done, but Victoire would try harder in the next semester. When the girl had finally sort of found her feet and was about to head somewhere else in the hall, someone beside her spoke.

Victoire glanced over, slightly startled at the suddenness of the person beside her. She smiled at him, he seemed just in awe as she was. Victoire was glad that finally someone else seemed as interested in this place as she was. The young Gryffindor felt as though people were just by passing how amazing this hall looked and was. She nodded along with what he was saying, "Not bad? It's.." she paused, wondering how best to describe it, "Magnificent" her french slipped out, as she just couldn't find the english word that would give this place justice. She looked away from the room, to the boy that was now beside her, she held out her hand to him, "I'm Victoire" She smiled at him. He was familiar to her, he must be a Gryffindor, which was why she felt like she knew him. Well, he was at least someone she would probably run into very often. "I did not. I expected silly decorations and a silly dj who played old rubbish songs from the 2010s," She shook her head glancing around at the hall. "I went to a private school, and they never put this much effort into any disco. It's something else"
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[Jarek Speed]

Magnificent possibly was the best adjective to describe the Great Hall in it's current state. He laughed, "Yeah, the sort of party your grandma might enjoy then!" Jarek himself hadn't expected anything bad, just not as big as this. "I expected a meal like the Sorting Ceremony, only one we dressed up for." Jarek looked down at his own robes. "My mum sent me these especially, she attended Hogwarts herself so she knew what to expect!"

"Oh yeah, I'm Jarek!" Jarek already knew that the girls name was something along the lines of Victoria or Victorie even though they had never spoken. "I've seen you before, we're in the same house" After a second pause he added, "And year at that!"

It suddenly occurred to Jarek that this girl had been waiting by herself, possibly for someone else to join her. "Sorry, am I interrupting? Are you waiting for your date to arrive? Just let me know if I'm in the way!"