We Are Our Greatest Fear

[Jazmine Della-Robbia]

JazzyMae Della-Robbia had planned on going to the Yule Ball. She totally had. The girl had gotten dressed and everything, but once she walked through the Great Hall doors she found herself running out. She had only stood in the place for a mere minute until she had left. She was sure she had drawn attention to herself. Tiffany had told her to show herself off and use some charm. JazzyMae couldn't do it. It was different when it was one person, but in a room full of people? No. This Hufflepuff was not able to do it. She was not able to do it. It was just not engraved in her personality yet. The Hufflepuff side of her would not allow her to call attention to herself. JazzyMae had managed to make it to the first floor. She placed a hand on her heart. It was still beating fast. She was pathetic. How could she just run out like a coward? She had nothing to be nervous about. Every girl was pretty, but every girl was not part veela. The revelation was still new to her. She leaned up against the stone, cold wall with her hand still on her heart. Oh Merlin she was an idiot. She started to take deep breaths. If her brother saw her in this dress she would be in big trouble. Despite only being his half sister, he was still overprotective of her. JazzyMae had not been nice to him after finding out they only shared a mother, but nothing had changed with him. JazzyMae could not believe she called herself a Hufflepuff. She was not even loyal to her own family. At any given moment she would turn her back on them. She was absolutely pathetic.

JazzyMae stood up straight. She needed to pull herself together. She could not act like this. The Yule Balll was almost over with anyways. There was really no use in her having to go anymore. She did not know why she was making such a huge deal about it. There was always next year and the year after that. She had plenty of time. There was no need for her to worry. She just needed to calm down and go up to her house. She needed to go and reflect. She needed to go to sleep and forget all about this moment. She needed to stop being a baby. JazzyMae exhaled and flattened out her dress. This was just a part of the transition. She was just growing up, and low self-esteem was apart of that. At least, that was what she told herself. JazzyMae started to walk again, slower this time.

 

[Kyle Cavanaugh]

It was past midnight and the yule ball was almost over. All the single people in the house were taking off with their friends. Only a few couples were dancing and they seemed like they did not want to be bothered. Kyle had enjoyed the evening but he could not compare it with the Yule Ball of last year. Many things had changed since then like he had grown up and his sense of humor was different now. His classmate, Sarah Keith had been a good company but Kyle had missed his close friend Rose Bellard with whom he had attended the previous ball. As Sarah and Kyle were clearly not a couple they too decided to leave the dance floor. They got a few more candies for their room before leaving the Great Hall. Kyle said goodbye to Sarah on the fourth floor where the Hufflepuff common room was located before heading up to his Gryffindor tower. Just as he was about to enter he realized that he had forgotten his tux in the Great Hall. A few hours into dancing, Kyle had begun feeling really hot and he had got rid of his tux and put it on a chair in the corner. Kyle's family was rich and could afford many more clothes but Kyle was not spoiled and cared for expensive things so he climbed down all the flights of stairs and luckily his tux was where he had left it. Sighing with relief he got his tux and started his journey back up.

The young Gryffindor was super tired and he could not wait to get into his comfortable bed for some good night sleep. He was looking forward to the holidays and Christmas in winter and he still had some packing to do. All the students had a long day since it was the day their exams got over and now the Yule Ball and they would be leaving the castle tomorrow. As Kyle reached the first floor corridor his eyes fell on a figure whose face he could not clearly see as it was in the shadows. Kyle saw the person resting with their back on the wall and wondered if they were okay or needed any help. Instead of continuing his journey up the stairs he started walking along the corridor but the person who had been standing began walking away. "Hey wait" Kyle said because he thought that his approach had been the reason for the person to walk away. As Kyle came closer he realized it was a girl who looked one or two years older than him and he had not seen her before. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you? Did I? Scare you I mean?" Kyle asked curiously the words flowing out of his mouth without a pause as he was concerned. As he finally caught up with her his eyes met her face and it was now illuminated in full light of the torches as she had moved away from the shadows. He realized how beautiful she was, prettier than anyone else he had seen before. Kyle easily noticed that she was dressed up for the Yule Ball but Kyle did not recall seeing her at the dance and he was sure that if he had seen her pretty face he would not have easily forgotten. He waited for her to reply to his questions as he enjoyed the view before him.

 

[Jazmine Della-Robbia]

Walking made JazzyMae feel better. She could focus on how to move her feet instead of how she ran from the Yule Ball like a coward. Her nervousness was what made her and her part-veela siblings different. They were never afraid, and they were always confident. She on the other hand struggled with all of those things. She did have random bursts of confidence, but that was she had been complimented or it was because she was wearing makeup. She was not expecting a person to call her out. JazzyMae stopped and turned around. Some guy was walking towards her. She was kind of not in the mood, but she was going to be nice. He looked young. JazzyMae wore flats, so she was standing at her regular five feet. He was only a couple inches taller than her. She chuckled and gently pushed her bangs from her eyes. "Sorry, but do I know you?" she asked politely. She gave the boy a small smile. He had startled her, but she wasn't easily scared. She hated surprises. She just hated them. Her brothers' loved surprises however. She had seen the boy around. Second year? "Are you lost or something?" she asked. The part of her that actually cared about what the boy wanted started to come out. JazzyMae had started to keep to herself more and care about others less, but she was not going to pour her misery out on others. That was just not how it was done. She looked at the boy curiously as she waited for something.

 

[Kyle Cavanaugh]

Kyle looked at the girl and noticed how beautiful her hair was and how nice her bangs made her face look. Her chuckle and her smile made her look even prettier. For a minute he could not even remember why he was here. Wasn't he going back up to his dorm? The girl was talking to her but he was slow in responding as he was too lost in wondering how come he had not spotted her before in the castle. "Umm.. no I'm not lost" he said finally as he realized that she was under the impression that he was a first years because only they got lost. "I'm a second year. Kyle. Kyle Cavanaugh" he said giving his introduction together with mentioning his year at Hogwarts because that seemed like a big achievement right now.

Kyle smiled back at the girl as he remembered why he had come into the first floor corridor instead of heading up. "Are you okay?"he asked concerned about the girl. He was guessing she was sad or maybe upset about something. He knew it was weird for him to just start being concerned about some random girl. Many girls must be upset right now but he wasn't trying to help any of them. This one seemed to have some charm around her that was drawing him to her. "What's your name?"he asked realizing that he did not even know her name. That seemed like a good start to discovering if she was okay.

 

[Jazmine Della-Robbia]

JazzyMae felt weird. The boy standing in front of her was being weird too. What did he want if he wasn't lost? Now, he was just being a bother. She was getting more irritated by the minute, but she kept her calm. He was only a second year, not that far away from first year. The boy introduced himself as Kyle Cavanaugh. She started to think. Patrick Cavanaugh? As in the owner of Thunderbroom? JazzyMae nodded. She was a Quidditch player, so she was interested in people of that sort. "Cavanaugh?" she repeated for clarification. She did not know how popular a it surname was, but if Kyle knew what she was talking about, then she would have all the confirmation she needed. The company made brooms, but she had never bought one of them. Her family was far too poor to try and get a mainstream broom. She was fine with her current broom though. She did not want anything better than her Sienna Storm. JazzyMae never thought that she would be such a sporty girl, but she found that it worked, and this girl went with whatever worked. She did not like complicated things.

Kyle seemed like he had suddenly remembered something. Then she was asked if she was okay. Why was this boy here? She nodded her head slowly. "Yes, I am okay. Why do you ask?" she asked him curiously. She was really curious as to why the boy thought that she was not okay. He must have her little scene earlier. She rolled her eyes. She was always drawing unneeded attention to herself. She must have inherited that from her father's side of the family because her mother was not a dramatic woman. "My name is JazzyMae." she introduced herself. She held out a hand for Kyle to shake. If he could take his eyes off her for a even a second though. He had been staring and looking at her funnily. Was her charm showing? She had a feeling she always became charming when her emotions were out of whack. She needed to learn some control.

 

[Kyle Cavanaugh]

Kyle waited for the girl to tell him her name. He was not sure what he was going to tell her after that but what he was doing seemed right. Kyle's thoughts were interrupted as the girl spoke his family name. "Yes, my father makes brooms" Kyle said with a slight frown. He did not want his father in this conversation. He wanted an identity of his own. Maybe he should have just given her his first name. Kyle could not wait for the day when he would be known for himself, when he would achieve something on his own.Kyle's brain processed that the girl had easily caught on to her surname and only people interested in flying and Qudditch would be familiar with his family name. Is she on one of the Qudditch teams? he thought curiously. Kyle had not played in any official matches last year he had just trained and stayed as an alternate. This year the matches had not begun and maybe if they had he had a feeling he would have spotted the girl on the pitch. Kyle smiled once again as the girl confirmed that she was okay. "Um..I was going upstairs and I saw you leaning on the wall all by yourself. I thought you were upset" he explained hoping the girl would not think of him as a stalker or something.

Kyle shook the girl's hand as she finally gave him her name. JazzyMae the name repeated itself in his head and he was once again smiling at her, this time without a reason. "Nice to meet you JazzyMae" he said as he let go her hands afte a few seconds, too long for a normal handshake. Think straightthe sensible part in mind scolded him. "You are very pretty" he couldn't help but compliment her."I suppose you had dressed up for the ball but I didn't see you there?"he asked hoping the girl would not mind his questions.