Closed Ultimate Decisions

[Victoria de Lacey]

She’d been thinking about it for some time and now that she’d spoken both to Jasper and to Professor Cade about it, she felt like it was the right time to tell her friends. She hadn’t meant to tell Jasper first, she would have prefered to tell all of her friends together, but, sometimes things prevent people from letting things happen as they should. So now it was actually going to happen, then she can’t chicken out. The whole thing was insanity, she knew that, she was going to a country where she didn’t even really speak the main language, so she was going to have to learn that. Well she’d been trying, she’d brought a German book to try and learn a bit of German before she went there, but someone had said it was likely they they probably also spoke quite a bit of english as a lot of educational institutes in Europe did - Durmstrang was magical though so it was hard to say, Fayre had said she’d help, but she was also kinda of unreliable to be honest.

She’d set up a picnic, she would tell them all together because it was easier this was, Susie, Lili, Eoghan, William, Asher, Esme, Nox, Felix, Rose and Jasper would have been invited if he didn’t already know about it. She considered inviting Amory, but she wasn’t sure she really considered him a friend, he’d probably find out through Rose anyway, since she’d be telling her roommates. She’d only invited Rose as her roommate anyway. She thought maybe Kiera would understand at least. So she waited, on a nice blanket her hands in her lap as she nervously hoped they didn’t all hate her.

@Susie Lagowski @Lilith Ilves @Eoghan Blyth @William Potter-Cade @Asher Styx-Potter @Esme Styx-Cade @Nox Walden-Cade @Felix Layton-King @Rose Edogawa @Kiera Potter-Cade​

 

[Susie Lagowski]

Tori always had the best ideas. A picnic at the lakefront! And she'd invited lots of people, too. Susie had never been very good at making friends, despite her outgoing nature - or possibly because of her outgoing nature. She got carried away and said stupid things and then, instead of trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong, simply resigned herself to the fact she would never be a sensitive person. She was best in a group - which was why she was endlessly grateful for girls like Tori, who not only organised fun hang-outs like this one, but also thought to invite Susie.

The Hufflepuff produced a hefty bag of candy as she approached the blankets. "I mixed them all up!" she said. "In case you didn't bring dessert." She plopped down, winced, fished a stray stone out from under the blanket, and made herself comfortable. It was a nice day for it. The water twinkled in the sunlight. "Merlin, I am tired today. I could take a nap right here."

 

[Lilith Ilves]

God modding allowed

Lilith was glad when both her and Eoghan had been invited for this picnic thing. It was also kind of the first times they'd be around the others so freely which was a relief to say the least. This said she now freely held onto his arm with both hands and leaned against it as they walked towards the designated spot. As she got closer she already peered at the two people there, Tori and Susie. Quickening her steps she walked towards both of them and let go of Eoghan giving Tori a long hug. "Heyy, this is such a nice idea and it's such a lovely day too." She said as she let go of her best friend and took a look around. It was nice and sunny that day, so it truly was the most perfect picnic weather. Turning to Susie the Ravenclaw wasn't exactly sure if they were in the hugging phase of their friendship yet, but she went for it anyways not wanting the Hufflepuff feel any less of a friend. "Hi Susie, good to see you outside of classes again, how have you been?" She asked after letting go of the embrace.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan hadn't been sure whether or not to be suspicious of the fact Tori had set up a picnic for their friends. On the one hand, perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise given she'd originally hosted the game of truth or dare for them and seemed to be the glue that was holding this group together, however something about a random group picnic at the lakefront was screaming at Eoghan. Perhaps it was the recent confessions of his own to Lilith not far from here, and the way that he was starting to believe the lakefront was becoming a front for the more serious conversations, but either way the Ravenclaw was apprehensive when he arrived with Lilith.

He let go of her hand as she went to hug Tori, and Eoghan turned to glance at Susie who had taken a seat on the blanket. He hadn't spoken to Susie since her previous Quidditch game, and while he knew Jonah hadn't been happy at what he'd posted in the Hogwarts Monthly, Eoghan had no idea how Susie had taken it. Were they still on good terms, or had Eoghan accidentally ruined their friendship too? The second year dropped down next to the Hufflepuff, a small wave at Tori when Lilith had pulled away from her. "You looked a little pale at the last game," Eoghan noted to the beater, before glancing at the ginormous bucket of candy in front of her. "Do you.. feel better?"​

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Godmod approved

Felix wandered down to the lakefront unusually by himself, on the way towards Tori's get together. It had been awkward that morning over breakfast, when Felix had been chatting with Amory about their plans for the day and Felix had casually thrown in that they should have met up before coming down to the lake together. That was, until Felix found out the hard way that one of his best friends hadn't actually been invited to a gathering of.. well quite a few others of their classmates by the sounds of it. By the time he approached the designated blanket, Tori was already surrounded by Susie and the Ravenclaw couple, and knowing Tori there would soon be others on their way down too. What was going on for Tori to only request the presence of certain people? He hadn't had a chance to find out if Jonah was coming down too, but he waited for one of his other friends to turn up before taking a seat himself. "What's going on here then?" he asked, glancing between the odd concoction of students in front of him.​

 

[Rose Edogawa]

Rose headed to wherever they were told to meet, the lake. She wasn't really friends with anyone who was here yet, and she sat to the side not really sure where she would sit. She had no idea why she was even invited and so she mostly stood to the side, not wanting to engage too much. Whatever it was to include her, she had no idea, but it must have been important.​

 

[William Potter-Cade]

William didn’t know why Tori had invited him to her picnic, all he knew was that she had invited a number of her friends along and he was surprised to be included given everything that had happened in their group since their first study group attempt. William and Tori weren’t exactly close, even if she had been his first kiss which he still found odd. William ventured out to the lake where Tori had set up the picnic and a couple of familiar faces had assembled. “Did someone die?”

 

[Nox Walden-Cade]

A picnic by the lake with all her friends was something only Tori could come up with and Nox was glad to receive an invitation. She had been spending a lot of time with Jasper lately and he’d missed her, he did wonder if Jasper had been invited too but there would be a few people there so it didn’t really matter. He headed down to the lake and there were a few people already assembled when he arrived, including his cousin William. Nox smiled at some of the familiar faces and headed straight over to Tori. “Hey, what’s brought this on?”

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

There were a couple of people arriving, and they all seemed to trickle in. It only made her more nervous for how she was feeling at the moment, unsure how they were going to take the news. “Thank you Susie, you always manage to make me feel a bit better,” she said, smiling at the bag she’d brought with her. Tori hadn’t brought sweets like that, but did have a bit of food. She wasn’t sure how many of them were going to want to stay after she’d said what she intended to. It was hard to tell sometimes what people really thought of her. She knew Susie liked her, at least she was pretty sure. “You can take a nap in a second, I just need to tell you something first,” she said, patting her friend on the shoulder. Soon more people started to trickle down from the castle, “I was very glad it decided not to rain today, that would have been inconvenient,” she would have probably had to move this to someone else, and it would surely have been a bad omen. The fact it was such a sunny day, that was a good thing, right?

She was happy for the hug, only pulling away once Lili had and then waved to Eoghan as well. She let them talk amongst themselves for a bit as soon Felix, Rose and William and Nox arrived. She ignored William’s comment, but smiled at Nox. She’d wondered if Professor Cade would have mentioned it, but it seemed he hadn’t. She sent a silent mental thank you to her Head of House, she really did prefer this to come from her. “No one died, but…” she took a deep breath, really unsure about how all of this was gonna go. “I’m… leaving. Transferring out at the end of the year.”​

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith sat down waiting patiently for everyone to arrive, she held back an eye roll at Felix, he could be quite a character it seemed. As a few other students joined them Lilith recognized one of them as Tori's roommate Rose (also known as Eli's sister part of the triplets) and one being well William whose name had been on that list. Then there was one of the Walden-Cade twins, the Hufflepuff one. The Ravenclaw managed a quick smile to each of them just before Tori broke the news. She whipped her head around to look at her, mouth falling slightly open. "I sure hope you are kidding right now Tori. You aren't leaving, surely not?" The second years eyes flicked from her best friend to Eoghan, to see what his reaction might be, before returning to the Gryffindor. "Asterope, please tell me this just a big misunderstanding or or that it's a joke. It's almost April, no? April fools yeah? A bit early but I'll take it... Just you can't leave us, where are you going and for how long?" It was more or less just her frantic thoughts falling out of her brain, the panic of losing yet another friend, no another best friend, setting her mind into panic mode.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan had been trying to work out why they specifically had been called to this picnic. Was this a group of those closest to Tori? As more students came down to the spot, perhaps this really was just that the Gryffindor wanted to have lunch together, after all it wouldn't be the first time she'd organized a meet up. The Ravenclaw had started to relax, which surprised him given he usually would have found himself feeling more uncomfortable with the bigger number of students around. However as Tori pressed on and caught the attention of her friends, he understood she hadn't just brought them here to enjoy the afternoon.

Honestly Eoghan hadn't even realised transferring out was option. Was transferring out to mean that she was leaving magic entirely, returning to a muggle school? He selfishly realised that if Tori left, he would be losing 50% of his support circle, and that the hardest school years were still ahead of them. At some point over the next few seconds, a frown had appeared on his forehead, and he didn't even glance back to Lilith as she started to tumble with her onslaught of questioning. Eoghan instead just remained silent, both shocked the admission had seemingly come out of no where, confused as to what this would mean for Tori, and devasted that he was no doubt about to lose some of the progress he'd made when it came to confidence.​

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix had given William a nod that resembled sup when he spotted his best friend joining them, giggling under his breath when he suggested someone had died, although regaining his composure quickly just in case it was true. Tori didn't wait for long either before telling the group that she was leaving at the end of the year, "What the hells are you leaving for?" he called out, because apparently he was getting good at doing that these days. "We not good enough for you or something?" Felix was joking of course, but he did hope she had a good reason for changing schools. Merlin, was he going to have to break the news to Amory, and any of the other students that weren't here before they found out from a professor?​

 

[Susie Lagowski]

Susie gladly pulled Lilith in for a bear hug. She never said no to hugs, even if they were a bit unexpected. Besides, this meant Lilith considered her a friend, right? “I’m good! How’re you?” she said as she let go. Eoghan, on the other hand, could get lost. Calling her arrogant was one thing; publishing it in the school paper was on a whole other level of mean. What had she ever done to him? He was the one with a stick up his butt, the stupid smarmy know-it-all. “Much better, thanks,” she said, pointedly moving the candy bucket a bit further out of his reach. If he thought she was sharing with him, he was very much mistaken.

There was an air of tension amongst the second-years, but Susie was too busy seething to notice it. So when Tori dropped the bombshell that she was leaving, Susie was briefly shocked into silence. Why? When? Did this mean she would never see her friend ever again? No! She’d spent years trying to make a best friend, and just when she thought she’d been getting somewhere - just when she’d though Tori really cared about her - she was leaving.

She wouldn’t cry. She was too angry to cry. Not at Tori. She wouldn’t choose to abandon her friends, would she? Her parents must have been dragging her away against her wishes. Merlin - what was Susie going to do? Whenever she was upset, she looked for Tori. Whenever she was unsure about anything, she asked herself what Tori would do. How would she cope without her?

Susie rubbed her eyes which were definitely not leaking. Maybe, if they’d been alone, she would have let herself be upset, but not in front of all these people. Susie Lagowski was tougher than that. When she finally trusted herself to speak, she said. “Well, that sucks. Can’t you do something? Can’t you tell your mom and dad you don’t want to go?”

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori tried to brace herself for the reactions, she knew a little about how they might react just from how Jasper had reacted, but it didn’t make hearing them any easier at all. Lilith’s panic, Eoghan’s silence, Felix’s bluntness, and Susie’s barely concealed distress - it all hit her at once, making her stomach twist. She knew this wasn’t an ideal situation for any of them, and it wasn’t going to be easy, but actually seeing how hurt she’d made them, the way their faces seemed to gall actually made the whole thing worse. She’d promised Jasper that it would only be a semester she was gone for, she could make the same promise to all of her friends, couldn’t she? She cleared her throat a little, sighing. “I—I wish it was a joke,” she admitted, giving Lili a pointedly apologetic look. She didn’t know what to say, only that this was really happening.

“I promise if this was a joke, this would be a lot funnier.” She forced a smile, but it clearly wasn’t a very good one, because she wasn’t happy about this situation. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She was excited that she was going to learn something new somewhere else, but she wasn’t all that happy about it meaning she would not have her friends around. If she could pack them all up and take them with her, she felt like that would have been preferable. “But no, April Fools hasn’t come early and I’m not messing with you. This is all real.”

Eoghan’s face worried her the most, because he hadn’t said anything, but she almost felt like he felt betrayed. By her? The frown said more than his voice could. She knew how much he struggled sometimes, how much having friends he felt like he could trust mattered to him. She’d heard the story, and she was about to take that away. But he still had everyone here, and she wasn’t leaving for good, just for a little while, just to do something for herself, something others wouldn’t have expected of her. She needed to understand. Then when Felix spoke her head snapped in his direction and she laughed a little, for probably the first time in a couple of days. “No, you dork, it’s not that you’re not good enough,” she said, slightly breathless from the way she had been holding her breath. “You’re stuck with me whether you like it or not, just… maybe from a little farther away.” Hey, Demi would probably be really happy about this.

Then came Susie. Oh, Susie. Tori swallowed the lump in her throat as she watched her friend rub at her eyes, pretending she wasn’t upset. She knew better. Susie wasn’t the type to just say how she was feeling - she covered things up with bravado, with laughter, with stubbornness. But Tori could see through it. She would try and hold the group together with Tori’s absence and she really hoped she could do so for the semester she was gone, but on her return she would have so many stories to share, Susie would want to listen to them, right? “My dad is actually all for it, and Mum sort of left the decision up to me. I don’t want to leave here, specifically, but I do want to travel a bit, learn some things and then have an adventure I can bring back. But I didn’t want to leave without telling you all, because you would probably look for me next semester and I wouldn’t be there. I’m gonna write to all of you every single day.”​