Up for some fun

[Preston Paine]

Donning a costume that was quite different from the one he’d worn the year before, Preston made his way up the steps to the Great Hall. This year, his Frankenstein costume was heavy, making it a bit difficult for him to walk. It didn’t help that the lighting was dim. It added to the atmosphere of the night, but also made Preston appear clumsier than he truly was. With a headshake as he stumbled on the final step, Preston headed towards the noise, eager to see what costumes his brothers had decided to wear. At the last minute, the Brotherhood had decided to join together and come sort of unified to the party. They were all monsters, though they were able to show their uniqueness in which monsters they had chosen. It was actually rather fun, and Preston found himself looking more forward to this feast than he had any other event he’d attended over the past two years. He was grateful for the guys, who’d been able to help him with the magical portions of his costume. Not having his wand outside of classes had proven to be more annoying than anything, but Preston was dealing with it. It wasn’t like he had a choice. Styx wasn’t going to give in early.

Entering the Great Hall, Preston glanced around the room, happy to see so many of his brothers present. One of them, a boy named Avie, was running around like a crazy person. He was already hopped up from the junk food, and the boy couldn’t help but hope that one of the professors would be smart enough to cut him off soon. Turning his attention towards the tables with the candy and junk, Preston headed over, cutting in front of a first year and receiving a rather nasty look. He shrugged, reaching for a cookie nearly the size of his head and taking an exaggerated bite as he looked at the girl. As his cookie broke in half, Preston reached down quickly to catch the falling piece. He glanced over at her, waving his hand to let her know that it was now her turn before he headed away, munching on his cookie as he walked around. At least this year his costume had an opening in the mouth, which meant he wouldn’t have to continually lift it up and down to eat and drink.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt had been very happy when one of the plans for the Halloween feast was to wear some what similar. Well, they just had a themes. The theme was Monsters. This had cut out a lot of time that Tybalt would've left to try to get a costume all on his own, and really he just always went for the same one. He was still struggling to find a costume for this. It was pretty hard, he didn't want to wear the same as anyone else. So in the end, he had opted for a Fred Kruger outfit, which was pretty good. It was a sort of cheat, he had just written a letter to his mother and she had sent him what he'd needed soon after. Now, he was just stood in his costume waiting to get going. He had the mask and everything. He was feeling this costume was a little strange for him. He rarely really wore any masks. He just didn't like them, they sort of constricted his somewhat limited vision already. Happily the boy, just switched the glasses with his contacts, and then gathered up anything else he would need for this evening. Halloween always reminded him of the Yuleball and the fact he hadn't seen B this year had everything up in the air.

Heading to the Great Hall the boy happily slipped on the mask, and let himself take few moments as his eye sight got adjusted to it. It took a few moments but then he headed into the Great Hall. It was strange that he only had two of these things left. It was funny and a little sad at the same time. Of course as an adult he'd be able to host halloween parties if he wanted to, but it didn't really have the same. It would be different. He smiled underneath the mask and then walked around the hall. He was walking more carefully, looking out for people and things that he struggled to see with the mask. He glanced around the room, and noticed the person wearing the Frankenstein costume. It was a good costume, and he realised that it had to be one of the brothers. Since Tybalt didn't know who it was, but he was looking forward to just being able to talk to someone. "Hey, cool costume man" he said to the other boy. Unsure as to who it was. "Great theme too" he said, really assuming that this was someone that he knew and that they were part of the brotherhood.
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston continued to make work of his cookie, its size diminishing with each bite. As he did, he kept glancing around the room, an odd look crossing his face as he spotted Sage. Her costume this year looked every bit as good on her as last year's costume had. The Slytherin couldn't help but admire her body, though he made no moves to move towards her. Preston wasn't exactly sure how he was feeling about things between them these days. It wasn't like they were on bad terms or anything. It was more than Preston didn't know what to do or say to her. When she'd stood up for him in the prefect's room, Preston had been both surprised and grateful. He hadn't ever thought that she considered him a good enough friend to stand up for. And he still wasn't entirely sure that was why she had done it, but he was too afraid to find out for sure. He was too afraid of what might come out of a conversation between them, so he was avoiding the whole thing. They'd had a good time keeping each other company during the previous year, but he was sure that he didn't want to continue that this year. So, it really was just better to keep his distance. Preston had too much other stuff going on, both in his head and on a daily basis.

Turning his attention to the Freddy Kruger that had walked up to him, Preston's eyes widened in admiration under his makeup. It really was a good costume, and he wouldn't have even begun to guess who it was until the person spoke. When he heard the guy's voice though, he knew right away. He'd heard it enough over the past six years. "Hey, it's me. Preston." Preston grinned, an odd look on Frankenstein, holding his hand out to greet Tybalt. The two weren't friends, though they'd become friendly over the past few years. That friendliness had come under some rather odd circumstances, however. Circumstances that Preston avoided thinking about when he could. He'd nearly opened up to Tybalt a couple of weeks ago, but in the end had decided that they weren't that close. "Glad you liked the theme idea. It seems like quite a few of us have gone along with it" he stated, pretty pleased at how many people had participated. Preston was beginning to feel really good about being the leader of the Brotherhood. It was nice to know that something could go right even when other things were going wrong. "Your costume is pretty great this year...definitely better than that Shakespeare one you wore when we met" he stated, his eyes sliding away from Tybalt as he finished. That had been during their first year, if he wasn't mistaken. Back when he'd been competing with Tybalt for Indiana's friendship. Preston let out a sigh and stuffed the last bit of cookie in his mouth. The chocolate helped, but still Preston berated himself. He sure knew how to bring down the mood.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

As soon as the boy wearing the costume spoke Tybalt realised who it was someone he knew, Preston. Laughing slightly as he came to this realisation and also as the other quickly said who he was. Despite the fact that they'd spent the last five and a bit years together he didn't know Preston all that well. Tybalt took the extended had and shook it firmly. Returning his hands to his side once that was over. He gave the other boy a warm smile through the mask, it was awful really, he didn't understand how people really dealt with this kind of mask thing at these events. He took this brief silence to look around the room. At the different costumes, and the brothers who had taken part in what they were trying to do. It wasn't a huge event but it worked. It made enough of a statement that it was difficult to somewhat ignore. It had been a good idea and it really prompted Tybalt to perhaps start work on the event his club would do. It was to keep in theme with the election going on outside of the school. Mostly just so that some students got a little taster of what was going on. Or just knew what it felt like.

Happily he glanced back at Preston as he agreed with what Ty had said. While they had never really been good friends, since Indiana had left things between them had been simpler. He didn't know why they had but they just had been. Tybalt had always loved Indiana, but to him, she was a friend. For Preston he was sure she'd been a little more. As Preston continued on he gave a small laugh, his first costume had been him dressed as the character he had been named after. Or it had perhaps been Romeo. He could no longer remember, but he laughed at his comment anyway. "That costume was amazing thank you very much." he laughed as he spoke, "Tybalt is a very important character in Shakespeare's Classic Romeo and Juliet. I was being my namesake. Or maybe I was Romeo I forget" he was happy to be able to laugh about it. He couldn't even remember what Preston had been, or even Indiana. She had been muggle something. He was sure. "I'm surprised you can remember. Admittedly I don't remember what you or Indiana went as." he added a little apologetically. "That was six years ago at this point. I wonder what she'd think of us now. She'd always wanted us to be friends." he gave as a way of explaining why he didn't remember and then Found himself laughing slightly at how long it had been.
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston shook his head. "I don't remember which one you were either. I just remember that I barely knew who Shakespeare was at the time. I still don't" he stated with a chuckle. One of the more difficult things about being in a magical school year round was that he was woefully behind in muggle subjects. His parents forced him to have a tutor during his vacation months for this very reason, determined that no one should think to doubt their story that Preston was attending an extremely prestigious boarding school. Preston had suffered through several of the man's sonnets and works over the break. "I don't remember what I wore either" he stated after a moment of trying to think of it and coming up with nothing.

"She'd probably be pissed that she tried so hard to make us friends and it took her not being around to make that happen" he stated, a bitter laugh escaping him. He watched in silence for a moment as people danced about, trying to figure out each costume. Some were easy, but others required some effort to figure out. Preston had been avoiding asking a question for the longest time, not wanting to admit that Tybalt might know more about Indiana than he had. It had taken long enough, but Preston had recently admitted to himself recently that the sense of competition that he'd always felt with the Gryffindor had probably been one-sided. "Have you heard from her? At all?" he asked, hope mingling with other emotions that he couldn't even begin to untangle. Now that the question was out in the universe, Preston hoped that the answer was a good one, though he wasn't sure which would be better: finding out that Tybalt was in contact with her and she hadn't asked about him or finding out that she hadn't reached out to Tybalt either.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt laughed lightly, perhaps they had their pictures in the yearbook, but that was too much of a task to be doable. It was silly, he liked just trying to think about it. It had been a while she'd he'd even thought about that very first halloween celebration. He hadn't given it any more thought since then. It was just halloween and that was all. Halloween was a good fun, but, it was a once a year kind of thing, and then that was it. He looked at the other boy, and nodded. It occurred to Ty that it would likely be Indiana who might remember better than the two of them. Even if it had been all those years ago, she had a better memory. Or well, he remembered her having a better memory. Whether that was true or not was a completely different matter altogether. He glanced down at the outfit he was wearing and then shook his head. "Well, whatever it was, I'm sure these costumes are a lot better" he said, knowing that as older students, that their costumes now would be much better than the costumes that they'd worn that first year. For one thing his family definitely had more money now than they had down back then. Which definitely helped with costumes.

As Preston continued talking he could help but laugh along with him. "I imagine she would be pretty pissed." Tybalt said in agreement. He felt like she would be happy and then also annoyed. Happy that they were sort of friends, but annoyed it had been because of her absence, and while she wasn't here. Though he was sure that once she got over the initial shock of it, she might just be happy with it. That was if she ever returned to Hogwarts. Or contacted either of them. It was tricky that was for sure. He had tried to send her letters but, he never got anything back. Not once. It was hopeless really. He glanced at Preston with a small smile behind the mask as he spoke. Shaking his head at him. He hadn't heard a thing, and from the sounds of it, neither had Preston. Which was neither a good thing, or a bad thing really. "Nothing." he said, "I've sent her letters, but I've not had anything back." he didn't think he need to clarify that, but it was good to note. "I assume you haven't either then?" he shrugged slightly. "It's a little frustrating, you know. She's suppose to be my best friend, and I haven't heard from her in over a year." This was the same thing with his supposed girlfriend. It was a little trickier however, but it was still the same thing. Left without a word, and Ty hadn't even been able to try to contact her. He didn't want to ruin what could be a fun evening, but he had never had time to vent about this.
​

 

[Preston Paine]

“No doubt” Preston stated, glancing down at his costume. Even if he hadn’t had the assistance of one of the Brothers to make some magical adjustments, Preston was sure that his costume would have held up as a good one. Certainly, it was better than whatever his lame, first year self would have been able to dream up. Back then, he’d barely known anything about magic, fearing that he’d become a freak, a weirdo, an outcast in the muggle world. Now, being without his wand was torturous. Preston hated not having his wand beside him to use at a moment’s notice. Last year, Preston had found that he cared less about what the muggle world thought of him and more of what this world, the magical one, thought. Now, he was really coming to terms with the two. He’d always belong to both, and he’d have to come to terms with being a bit of wildcard no matter where he went. It was a tough thing to come to terms with, but Preston was at least content in the fact that he was beginning to find people in his life who would help him come to terms with both. The Slytherin boy was sure that if he actually gave it a chance, he and Tybalt could be really good friends. They at least had one thing in common – Indiana- and he was sure that there was more if he’d only look.

Preston’s heart plummeted some more when Tybalt shook his head. That she hadn’t even reached out to Tybalt meant that she really had just…vanished. That was really the only word for it. She had been around one moment and just not the next, though it had taken Preston a few weeks to realize that she really had disappeared and wasn’t simply avoiding him for some reason. “Nope” Preston replied sadly. Preston sighed as Tybalt continued, not sure if Indiana had spoken to Tybalt about their relationship or not. Indecision warred in him for a moment before he finally spoke up once more. This was supposed to be a party, a time to have fun and let loose. It seemed that Tybalt needed the chance to vent about things just as much as he did though. Another thing you two have in common , the Slytherin thought to himself bitterly. That it had been over a year was a fact that startled Preston far more than he’d admit. He’d never stopped to count the weeks, but Tybalt was right. The last time that he’d seen Indiana had been some time during their fourth year. “Tell me about it. We were dating. At least I think we were. I don’t even know anymore” he replied, the urge to run his fingers through his hair in frustration messed up by the fact that his hair was covered. Instead, he glanced around the room and away from Tybalt, watching the happy couples as they danced around the room. “You knew, right?” Preston asked aloud, though he wasn’t looking at the guy. Preston couldn’t remember whether Indiana had told him that she’d informed Tybalt, but he hoped that she had. That she might have kept their relationship secret and also disappeared on him wasn’t something the Slytherin was ready to hear. As his eyes fell onto Sage speaking with a younger student, his eyes shifted guiltily away towards the stage. “It probably doesn’t matter anymore” he mumbled more to himself than anything. He’d kept secrets too. With a wry grin, Preston spoke once more. “We make a sad duo, Archer.”

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt laughed lightly when he glanced down at his costume. It was better now, with both magic and actual money in his family, he was n a much better position now than he had been when he had first started at the school. Which was really the hope. He had come a long way, and Ty couldn't but think that finally being able to be Preston's friend was part of it. He had never disliked the slytherin, but they had also never really gotten along. It had always been Indiana which had been the bridge between them. Which was why it was a little strange that only now were they able to be friends really. Happily Tybalt smiled through the mask at the other boy. He knew could tell from his reaction that the boy had been hoping that Ty had at least heard from her, but it was just as the gryffindor had come to realise, she had been her one day and not the next. it was perhaps even a little stressful to not know what was happening. He shook his head a little when he too said nope. That was crazy. Why hadn't she contact Preston. From what Tybalt knew was that towards the end they had been much closer than he and Indiana had been.

As the other boy continued, it was confirmed what he had believed. While Indiana had never told him, he had guessed it a little bit when he'd seen them together. Which hadn't been great. He would've liked to have been told, but it didn't matter. "She never actually told me about you guys, but, I knew Indiana well enough to figure it out" he told Preston, and as he continued he realised that Preston was in a very similar situation to him. "You know, my girlfriend did the same. I mean, we didn't even tell anyone we were dating, and then she sort of just disappeared and now I don't even know where we stand" he told him, with a small laugh. "I think at this point, we're both free to go after other people" he sighed slightly, "I don't think it would be fair of them to expect us to stay loyal when they can't even spare the time to write back. And if they waltz back into our lives, they can't expect us to jump back into it." he said, "I know since the last time I saw her, I've definitely changed. Things couldn't ever go back to how they once were." he looked around at all the people, there was a boy on the dance floor, Avie or something dancing like crazy. "That we do." He chuckled at it. "Although even considering that, I don't think I quite want to be that Avie kid come the next couple of hours when he comes down from that clear sugar high."
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Tybalt had always been pretty smart and further proved it to Preston by confirming that he had guessed at his relationship with Indiana. That she hadn't told her best friend left Preston slightly annoyed. He didn't have too much time to settle into the emotion, however, before Tybalt had a revelation of his own to share. It was too bad that he'd only really had eyes for Indiana and hadn't really begun to know other girls until last year or he might have made some attempts at guessing the girl's identity. That he was going through a similar experience and really could understand where Preston was coming from made him more comfortable with venting. The Slytherin listened to the Gryffindor, nodding his head slowly at first and then more earnestly as he mentioned that the girls could hardly expect that they were waiting on them. They were a couple of sixth year boys, in the prime of their lives.

"You're right. They can't really expect to just be here waiting. lt wouldn't be fair of them." Preston could feel some of the guilt he'd been carrying with him about Sage going away as he spoke to Tybalt. It didn't make him want to run to Sage and ask her to date him any more than he had the day before, but he was more accepting about having sought attention elsewhere. He was a teenager, after all. And Indiana couldn't expect that he would just wait for her forever. "Yea, I've changed too. A lot" he stated as he thought about it. He'd been through a lot over the past two years, things he'd dealt with in Indiana's absence that made him a much different person than the guy she'd known. He was sure that whatever she was going through, wherever she was, was changing her too. It was impossible to tell if they'd even be friends should they meet again, let alone anything else.

Looking into the crowd, it didn't take Preston long to spot Avie. He looked like he'd eaten enough candy for three people, judging by his movements. Laughing openly, Preston could hardly reply. He rather liked Avie, his respect for the boy growing after the boy dared to hug Professor Styx. "Wow. The common room oughta be fun tonight. He's going to get on soo many people's nerves" he finally said. With a headshake, Preston leaned closer to Tybalt. "10 knuts says he hurls on someone before the night is through" he said with some amusement in his voice. There was no way he could make it through the night moving like that without bringing up all that candy. Preston could only hope that Avie managed to find the Head Boy or Girl when he did.