Third time's a charm.

[Rhiannon Archer]

Tonight had been three years in the making for rhiannon. It seemed like she and perseas kept missing asking each other to the ball first. This year, this year however they had managed it this year. she was looking forward to it. She had found a brilliant dress in a charity shop in the muggle town nearest to the the school. she visited it from time to time when she could to access the internet and send assignments and stuff. She had ten spent the afternoon getting ready, doing her hair, makeup and finally slipping into the sparkle encrusted dress. She particularly liked the back, or rather lack of back. One last reassuring smile in the mirror and a couple of extra bobby pins just for good measure. Once she was done she headed out of the common room to the entrance hall where she and Perseas had agreed to meet before entering the ball, she found a corner with a bit of a view, glad of her heals to give her a little extra view. eventually after a little scanning of the room, she saw him waved once and then tried to weave her way through the people towards him.

 

[Perseas Stratis]

As Perseas dashed down the stairs of the Grand Staircase, he had another check of his wrist watch. It was no surprise he was running late again. The fifteen years old had a serious time management issue but this didn't usually stressed him. It was an exception the night of the much anticipated Yule Ball. A hint of anxiety was curled into his stomach, an unprecedented feeling for someone who wasn't taking anything seriously. Perseas didn't want her to wait so he picked up his pace.

The Entrance Hall was bursting with students. Possibly it was the first time Perseas had seen so many people assembled there. The marble staircase was crammed. High heels didn't let most female students move fast enough and Perseas wasn't patient enough to follow their slow-move pace. He sat on the marble rail and slid all the way down to avoid getting stuck in the crowd. He buttoned his suit and walked towards the entrance of the Great Hall. His grey eyes fervently searched around for his date. A smile exploded across his face when he spotted her and raised his hand to wave. He was about to move through the crowd that was separating them but Rhiannon was already on her way. "Hello Rhi." he greeted, flashing a genuine it's-great-to-see-you smile. It slowly transformed into a frown when he realized he had forgot something. The rare orchid, he had went into extremes to smuggle from the greenhouses, was left lying on his bed back at Gryffindors common room. Despite this minor snag, Perseas succeeded in mustering his smile again. "You should party more. It suits you." he nodded at her as he complimented her looks. Her transformation from the girl with the Hufflepuff uniform and the books, was stunning. "Shall we go?" he offered his arm.

 

[Rhiannon Archer]

Rhiannon didn't need two looks to figure out that the boy sliding down the banister was perseas. she didn't think there was anyone else in the school who would make an entrance like that. When she had managed to get herself through the crowd. "Perseas, you look fantastic. who knew you looked this handsome in a suit" she said smiling a wide smile. before her complimented her on how she looked. "thank you. I tried pretty hard to look good this year" she said happy to be finally attending the ball with her best friend. she took his arm as he offered it to her and nodded on agreement that they should enter the great hall.
Inside it was stunning, beautifully decorated, the christmas trees were sparkling and there was snow falling from the ceiling. one thing she did notice that she swore she had never seen before was that somehow the wall was missing down one side of the hall leading straight outside. "that's new she mumbled more to herself than perseas. "now what do you want to do this evening, seeing as it is your plan of something more fun than chess" she said recalling what he had described the event as before she had known that is what he was describing.

 

[Perseas Stratis]

"Really?" he asked in disbelief and glanced down at his outfit. "I feel like a bloody penguin." he joked and tugged his jacket, slightly red-faced. Perseas let her hook her arm through his and together followed the stream of formally dressed students, inside the Great Hall. It seemed that the professor who had staged the ball this year, had outdone themselves. The usual snow was falling abundant from the enchanted ceiling, which was quite contrary to the warm weather they were having, and the Christmas trees were as always towering at the corners of the vast hall. As the guest band started playing a slow song, pairs throng the dance floor at the middle of the room. What ultimately caught Perseas' attention was the wide opening between the two large fireplaces of the right wall. "What's there? Let's check this one out!" he suggested and this time took her hand to guide her there. They found themselves walking outside the castle, at the grounds, just outside the wall that once was standing there. Fairies were fluttering around, scattering fairy dust everywhere. Carts of different merchandizes and candies were stationed between arcs of mistletoe and the best thing that left Perseas' awestruck. "This is so rad!" he exclaimed excited, not sure where exactly to lay his eyes on. "Tell me you know how to ice skate!" he asked her hopeful. He really wanted to join the queue forming in front of the tent by the ring's entrance. There they could receive their pairs of ice skates.

 

[Rhiannon Archer]

"Tux's always look like penguins, and you are wearing a black shirt" she said, commenting on how he felt like a penguin. It was something she always felt was commented on, even in like cartoons, and she was sure people called tux's penguin suits.
they waited as professor Le Fey introduced the ball. It was odd that it was professor Le Fey doing it this year, as far as she could remember it had always been Professor Davenshire. she didn't mind, they were both very approachable professors, and although she couldn't comment on professor Le Feys teaching ability as she had never taken divination she had heard she was good, if not slightly unconventional, and the classroom had not got desks in it. once the ball had officially started with an unconventional slow song y the band she and perseas both wonted to see what was behind the unreal opening in the wall. they walked outside into the garden which had been transformed from one of her favorite hideouts of years ago to a magical wonderland, much like a book she had read when she was about eight called the midnight garden when every night at midnight the delapitated garden of the house a young boy is staying at turned into a magical world. around them were fairies, flitting in and out of the plants as if playing their own game of tag, and there were arches decorated in mistletoe. but the most impressive thing was, at the end of the path, an ice rink. "I haven't skated for years, i can go, but i am not the best at stopping" she said, usually she had found she stopped either by just slowing down more and more or crashing into the wall.
They joined the line for skates which at this point was still rather short. in almost no time they were kitted up and ready to go. "I love ice skating" she said to no one in particular, "probably because i never get to go that often" she added. as she and perseas made their way onto the ice. she held his hand briefly to begin with but decided after a lap it was harder to skate holding hands and thus let go, but remained near to him, just far enough away to prevent them from tripping each other up. "are you going home for the holidays? she asked skating beside him hoping she didn't fall over as she doubted her dress would do very well, and was sure her tights would hole.

 

[Perseas Stratis]

They sort of unconsciously joined the queue to get their ice skates and Perseas couldn't stop looking at the people already enjoying themselves on the ice ring. "Good. Cause I've never ice skated before. You'll have to show me." he revealed with a cheeky smile. A few minutes later the steel blades of their skates were cutting into the ice, a bit unstably in his case. He watched closely Rhiannon's moves and tried them himself to build some speed. It wasn't as difficult as it looked like and he found himself enjoying the sound of the blades slashing through the ice. "Okay, how does someone stop?" he asked as he found himself unable to slow down. He reached the other end of the ring and grabbed the handrail to maintain his balance and stopped. "Sliding from one end of the ring to the other would do the trick." he chuckled as there was no way to stop on his ice skates, the way a few students around them were doing. Perseas glided along Rhiannon but also pretty close to the handrail in case he needed extra support. "No, I'm staying at Hogwarts." he replied at her question, swiftly recovering before falling. "I'll be patient and wait until the end of next semester. I don't want to distract myself now that I'm in a studying mode." he explained, not really believing that this fully-considered statement had came out of him. "I guess I'll be spending more time at the library than you." he added with a frown. It wasn't exactly the kind of Christmas he wanted to have but good grades mattered more to him right now. "What about you? I hope you won't waste much time studying muggle stuff." he asked in return and kicked a bit harder so that his skate bladed dug deeply into the ice and accelerated to keep up with her.

 

[Rhiannon Archer]

Rhiannon was shocked. "you have never been ice skating? how about roller skating" she asked. "it isnt like walking you sort of have to push your feet at angles and gliding" she tried to instruct him, but before too long they were ready to go. the ice felt smooth like it often did at the start of a session before too many blades had cut through it. Perseas seemed to get the hang of going fairly well, though he was staying quite close to the ides as an almost precaution. "to stop, you can just stop skating and you will slowly slow down, or you can turn which will slow you enough to a stop, or you can do what you just did, and grab hold of the rail or crash into the wall." she said. then she had a thought. "or maybe someone could impedimenta you" she said musing more than speaking. that was meant to stop a moving attacker in its tracks but she was fairly sure it would stop a moving anything still as well.
as the conversation meandered to the holiday plans Rhiannon stopped and looked at perseas for a moment as he said he was staying at school as he was to much in study mode to risk going home. she wasn't sure if he was being serious or making fun of her. "Don't bank on it, i am staying here too." she said in response to him saying he would be spending more time in the library than her. she realised she was going faster than him and leaving him behind so she slowed down for a bit to let him catch up. "I have muggle exams next week. one of the professors said they would be supervisor for them. so i will be busy with muggle work for the first bit of the break. but that means i wont have as much next semester at the same time as OWLs" she explained. "have you stayed at the castle in the holidays before? this will be my first time.. she wasn't sure if she would have chosen to stay on her own accord, but she had heard somewhere thought the grapevine that prefects were expected to stay, and although she wasn't sure how true that was she did quite want to set a good impression. just then her skate hit a lump in the ice and she started to stumble she grabbed the nearest thing to her to save herself falling which was perseas' hand. thankfully she managed to save herself before she, went flying dragging him with her, though the stumble was quite clear. "sorry" she said. looking to see if anyone but perseas had seen her.

 

[Perseas Stratis]

While making sure he wasn't going to end up down on the ice, Perseas shook his head negatively. "Nah. I should remind you these are muggle sports. I grew up with broom flights, chariot races with winged horses and yeah, even de-gnoming. You can call it a sport when it involves shooting the gnome on a target." he listed a few of the sports he was more accustomed to. He turned out to be doing relatively well at ice skating too. Rhiannon's tips proved to be handy. "Oh no." he said surprised by what Rhiannon had just implied. "I am a really bad influence to you. Did you realized that you just suggested something I would have thought and probably done?" he pointed out about the impedimenta part she just recommended. Then he noticed her own bewilderment when he told her he was staying at Hogwarts in order to keep on with the revision. "I guess you're a bad influence to me as well." he shrugged and chuckled.

Perseas kind of admired her determination to sit for both her OWLs and her muggle exams. It sounded like it was a lot of work but she seemed to be doing fine. "Just promise to me that if one day I need your medical services, you'll either use potions or charms. No lancets nor scissors." he let her know in a teasing away as he managed to catch up. He was glad that she was going to stay at school as well. This meant they were going to keep having their revision sessions in the library. He was constantly grumbling about them in front of her but in reality he was always looking forward to them. "It's a first for me too." he replied. He completely forgot what he was going to say next as Rhiannon stumbled suddenly and his quick reflexes kicked in and his hand connected with hers. "I got you." he reassured as she made a nice recovery. "No need to break the ice now. We've been through this stage." he quipped in order to make her forget of her discomfiture after noticing her checking around to see if anyone else had noticed.

They continued gliding on the ice for what to seemed another fifteen minutes but the ring got packed with people and was no more fun for someone as amateur as Perseas. "Now it's getting dangerous." he commented as another student zoomed past him in high speed, almost knocking Perseas down. "You know what? Let's go grab something to eat while we are still at one piece." he joked as another student almost crashed on him. They returned the ice skates and took back their shoes. Perseas didn't want to leave the gardens just yet. Inside, the Great Hall was packed and too noisy, whereas the gardens were like a fairytale land. Music was more pleasant there and there were also a lot of food carts to check out. The two fifth years ended up getting food from there instead of having to pass through the crowd of the Great Hall to reach the buffets. Two slices of pizza margherita, Belgian waffles filled with praline and some other sweets to share with Rhiannon, were some of the things in the paper bags he ended up with. A bottle of butterbeer as well and when they were both done, they found a bench overlooking the ice ring and sat back to enjoy the food. Perseas ripped one of his paper bags and took a slice of pizza. "Cheers! To the happy end of our OWLs." he toasted as the butterbeer bottles cling echoed in his ears. "So, are your parents doctors as well and they kind of want you to study to become a doctor too." he asked her and took a bite. Perseas had just realized he had never asked her what her parents were doing for a living.

 

[Rhiannon Archer]

Rhiannon had to chuckle when perseas said she was being influenced poorly by him "only with their permission of course. but maybe you are right" she said then laughed harder when he said she was being a bad influence on him "you bet. it's a good excuse to be a bad influence on you" she said. sure he wouldn't get the reference but not caring. "okay I promise no lancets and scissors but how about bandages, stitches, injections and tablets" she said
at perseas's comment about her not needing to break the ice she smiled again. how was it that even the simplest comment by him made her want to laugh. "I think the problem there was the fact the ice was already broken she countered. looking around and realising how full the ice was getting, and it seemed a lot of the students were like perseas and not really experienced on ice where as a few were flying about the rink one coming in a very near miss of them both. "food sounds good, lunch was so long ago" she said as they made their way to the edge of the ice and returned the skates.
they wandered around the garden selecting a really interesting selection of food before they found a quiet secluded bench with a view of the well lit ice arena. she looked at her pizza "cheers!? that smells good" she said before taking a bite. it tasted as good as it smelt. "yes my parents are doctors, my mum is a paediatrician and my dad is a surgeon." she said taking another bite. "they don't necessarily want me to be a doctor, they want me to have a good job, which is sort of along the lines of doctor, dentist, lawyer, engineer, that is what my brother is doing, accountant or pharmacist." she said. "so the fact i was invited to go here and there is a whole other world of careers s something they are a little uncertain of" she continued. "what was it your parents do?" he asked realising she wasn't entirely sure she knew his dad did something with animals but didn't know what his mum did.