The Unfriendly Mistletoes

[Ai Nightray]

After hours and hours of searching in the library and countless more of trials of spells and potions, Ai had managed to get hair her down for the night of the Yule Ball. She was in no possible way, letting herself into the Great Hall in the kind of hairstyle that the Brotherhood of Magic had put her and the other girls through. They had planned stuff to get back at those boys, they just had to wait when the time is right. It will be a sweet revenge for those sweets indeed. For now, she had a night to enjoy with Jeremiah Raven. The Head Girl had never expected Miah to actually like her. Merlin, it was really a shock when she found out. How could it not shock her? Miah kissed Taylor on Halloween. Surely that was not some kind of confession for Ai, right? How could she not think that the Gryffindor liked another Gryffindor?! Even if Taylor was engaged to Conan! She could still not comprehend though why he did that, but she was willing to overlook it as long as he didn't leave her side anytime soon. She liked him, or maybe even loved him, too much for that and it was clouding her judgment on certain issues. Well, for tonight, she was sure that he wouldn't be kissing any other girl. Even if Arianna seemed to have eyes on Jeremiah. Tonight was her night and she was not giving it away.

And so, with her all dressed-up and prepared, she entered the Great Hall. She had to admit, her hair was not that good today considering that she had just finished fixing it and her make-up was not all that visible since she didn't want to rely on it too much tonight, though she made sure that it would at least show-off some of her prettier features which was to say, probably not much. She wondered where her date for the night was as she had told Miah that they should just meet-up in the Hall instead of him picking her up from the common room. After all, she wasn't even sure if she would be able to fix her dreaded hair. Well, she just had to make do with looking for the Italian tonight. After all, it wasn't like he would just ditch her right? She was sure that that would never be the case.

 

[Liam Nightray]

Liam Nightray had never liked parties. Who ever started such useless events must have too much time on their hands that they had the luxury to waste it on such petty occasions were pretentious people doll themselves up, cake their faces with those ridiculous colors until they were barely recognizable he bet even they wouldn't recognize themselves upon looking in the mirror, and gossip about people behind their backs. These idiots, indulging themselves in earthly pleasures, had wasted their time instead of focusing on giving some semblance of purpose in their already pitiful existence. Liam would never understand why people liked parties. He had attended a lot of these stupid events before, and it was surely not entertaining. He would never understand what people found in these balls, and he wasn't going to waste his time trying to understand it either. The seventeen years old didn't care about any of this. In fact, in his six years of stay at Hogwarts, he had never attended the Yule ball even once. He would rather spend his time alone than to spend it sharing a room, breathing the same air, as these pathetic troglodytes. But alas, every thing and everyone has their first time. He would have been perfectly fine not being able to attend any Yule ball his entire life, in fact, he would be pretty darn proud of himself if he was able to avoid such pathetic events, but his stupid cousin, that cursed Gryffindor, had ruined everything. Words could not sway the young Slytherin easily. He didn't care about other people's opinion, unless that other person of course, was someone he despised so much. He usually wouldn't care, that is, until his pride had been hurt, and merlin was his pride too big even for a member of a Nightray family.

The damn second year Gryffindor cousin of his, in one of his stupid missions to engage him in a conversation, had managed to corner him a few days ago. Liam ignored him of course, for that's what he usually does anyway. But if there was one word that could describe Armin Nightray aside from being an idiot, he was stubborn. Once he had set his mind on something, he'd stubbornly work towards that goal, and to Liam's misfortune, he was his cousin's test subject for the moment. Liam usually wouldn't let himself fall for his cousin's silly tricks, he wasn't stupid, but alas, the younger had definitely hit a nerve. How dare he? How dare that stupid cub accuse him of being... of being attracted to the same gender? Liam had no problem with people who sways that way, but he preferred not to get involved. And despite his lack of height (which he continuously ignores), he was pretty damn confident of his masculinity, thank you. He ignored the younger when he first said it of course, but Armin, with that annoying overly dramatic voice of his, had exclaimed, shouted in fact, in mock shock that he would accept his cousin no matter what his sexual orientation was. And that got him. Everything went downhill from then onward, and here he was, standing in the middle of a noisy crowd, dressed in a suit sent by one of his family members, he didn't bother to know who. He adjusted his coat, incessantly tapping his foot on the floor in irritation. The music was too loud, the students were too loud, and their dresses were too bright and flashy. He crossed his arms, scanning the crowd, he was sure that his damn cousin was around, probably watching him to see what he'd do. He scoffed. This was ridiculous. This was stupid, terribly stupid. His sharp eyes scanned the crowd again, and like he thought, his cousin, who was obviously not attempting to hide, was by the drinks table, with his twin of course. He glared. He'd kill them but first, he must avenge his pride, no matter how ridiculous this would be. From his peripheral vision, he saw the stupid 'puff in her stupid dress. If she thought it would make her look decent, then she was dead wrong.​

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[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor Blare has always enjoyed a good party. Parties were something that she could handle quite well. She didn't have to think, she could simply do. Sometimes when she wasn't feeling the best, she could go to a party, simply for the social niceties. She could be social on autopilot if she had to be. Luckily for her, however, she didn't have to be. The Yule Ball was a time that Taylor loved. She tried to attend as many as she could, though she was pretty sure she may have missed one or too. It was not big deal though, this was her last year and this was all that counted. After tonight, she would not be able to attend another Yule Ball. Her hair had taken her hours to perfect, seeing as it was so long and she was placing it in a bun. Though it made little sense to her now, she had thought it was a brilliant idea days ago and now she was pretty much forced to continue with it. She had no time to simply change her hair. It simply wasn't done. She was running late enough as it was. Who even knew how long Conan was waiting out there. He was most often early, so she could be anywhere from five to twenty minutes late. An aspect she was not happy with. Still, as long as she actually got there, she supposed it wasn't such a big deal.

Finally satisfied that she didn't look like an Echidna, or even a pin cushion, Taylor turned from her mirror and hightailed it out of the Gryffindor common room. As she expected, Conan was already there waiting for her, and as she had not seen him all day, she immediately threw her arms around him and kissed him on the mouth. Just briefly however as she really wanted to get to the hall. "Hiya! Our last ball... can you believe it, Conan? It's so amazing!" Who would have thought that six years ago they had stepped through the halls of Hogwarts as first years, unassuming and shy, Taylor had definitely been uncertain, though happy. She had never expected to fit in, or to make friends, but she was more then happy that she had. After all, why wouldn't she be. The friends she had made were some of the best people in the world and she would never give them up for anything. "Oh! I bet the hall is going to be so beautiful!" It always was, no point in stopping now.
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