Your First Lesson in Showmanship

[Zoe Westwick]

As much as Zoe had had to search for things to hold her interest at home before coming to Hogwarts, holidays were now positively boring. All the interesting things to study and experiment with were at school, and what point was there going alien spotting in Auckland when she knew there were real mermaids hiding in the lake at Hogwarts? It all felt futile, and Jason having left home hadn't helped any. One of the only things that held Zoe's attention was the internet, and digging deep into weird old corners of the internet on one of Jason's free evenings had led Zoe to an old comic that had held her interest for most of the holidays. She didn't understand all of the jokes, but the aliens were cool, and even if the plot was a bit confusing it was interesting. So she had decided to dress up as one of her favourite characters for Halloween, just for the fun of it. There were other people here dressed as characters from comic books, it was fine, how different was an internet comic? Nobody would know what she was dressed as anyway, they'd just think it was a cool robe. Making her way over to the snack table Zoe looked around the party, nibbling on a pumpkin pasty and eyeing the apple bobbing station while she hoped to run into any of her friends.

((this is the nerdiest nerd thing i ever did))

 

[Jon Phillips]

Halloween was high on Jon's list of favourite holidays, the opportunity to dress up, eat bucket loads of sweets, and have fun some of the many things he loved about it. Even if it wasn't as widely celebrated in New Zealand as he thought it should have been, he was at least happy Halloween was celebrated annually at Hogwarts and he could spend the evening in the great hall admiring the costumes and creativity of the students, staff, and other professors that chose to dress up. Jon had always been hesitant to dress up for the Halloween feast himself despite loving to dress up away from Hogwarts. He found when he was at Hogwarts he preferred to stand idly by on the sidelines and watch everyone else have fun, rather than be at the center of attention in case he accidentally did something to embarrass himself. That evening was no exception and Jon was pleased that every one else was able to have fun while he detoured to one of the snack tables. He looked over the sweets that were available, wondering what he was going to choose. It wasn't until he eventually reached for a pumpkin pasty that he realized the girl he was standing next to was dressed as Rose Lalonde, and his mouth fell open with surprise. Students dressing as comic book characters for Halloween was not unheard of, but a student choosing to dress as character in an obscure internet comic from years ago was basically impossible. It was the last thing he expected, but when he managed to get over the initial surprise a smile appeared on his face as he asked "God Tier already?", attempting to make an in joke with the girl.
​

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella hadn't really bothered much with dressing up for Halloween before, but this year Zoe had convinced her that it would be fun. Stella's family had never really celebrated Halloween, or had much expectation to since it wasn't really a big thing in New Zealand. She found herself thinking back to the pumpkin-growing lessons 'for Halloweeen' in first year herbology . . . despite the fact that this wasn't the season for pumpkins in the southern hemisphere, and she and most other people she knew had never even seen a jack-o-lantern before coming to Hogwarts. Stella hadn't put that much effort into her costume, but she was enjoying wandering around the hall looking at everyone in their cool costumes. Now Stella wandered over to the snack table and finally found her friend at the snack table, though awkwardly, she was talking to a professor who seemed to recognise her costume. Stella didn't, but she was impressed. "Hi Zoe! Hi Professor Phillips! Your costume looks really cool . . . um, what are you dressed as?"

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Zoe wasn't paying much attention to the people around her as she nibbled on her pasty, surveying the party. It almost didn't register that anyone was talking to her until the familiar words seeped in and she whipped her head around, looking up in shock to see that her Head of House had been the one to talk to her. "Yeah!" Zoe beamed with excitement, bouncing on her toes slightly. "Do you know who I'm dressed as, Professor?" She asked, almost too excited to remember to refer to the teacher with proper respect.

Zoe was distracted when Stella approached, but not too distracted to tear herself away and greet her friend with a big hug. "Stella! You look so cute! That mask is perfect!" She said happily, straightening her friend's mask as she released her from the hug. "I'm a character from a comic Jason and I read over the holidays!" Zoe said happily, spinning around and letting her robe flap around her. "Professor Phillips knows it too!"

 

[Jon Phillips]

The girl seemed just as surprised Jon knew where her costume was from, as he was surprised to see her costume at the feast to begin with. It definitely was one of the last comic based costumes he expected to see but that didn't mean it was any less awesome. He nodded in response to her question, answering with a "Of course, you're Rose," as he finally picked up a pumpkin pasty and bit into it. Another girl soon interrupted to greet them both and Jon smiled at her, not recognizing her under the mask until her name was said. The girls seemed to be happy talking to each other and Jon was about to take that as his queue to leave them to have a fun night. Though he instead waited an extra moment, nodding a second time to confirm he did know the costume. He was half tempted to stay and talk about the comic after that, then decided it was smarter not to to burden the two girls with pointless nerd knowledge when they were supposed to be making the most of the Halloween feast. "I'm going to leave you girls to it then, have a great night, happy Halloween!" He said before turning to walk away, biting again from the pumpkin pasty in his hand as he headed to a different part of the hall. ​

 

[Stella Wright]

"Aaaah, thank you!" Stella grinned at the compliment. "And thank you for convincing me to dress up, this is so much fun." Stella was fascinated to hear that whatever this comic was their head of house was also familiar with it. It humanised him in a way that was obvious now she thought about it, but that had never really occurred to her with regards to most of the teachers. She opened her mouth to tell him he didn't have to leave, curious about his perspective on this, but he was already walking away. It was probably awkward for him to talk to a couple of younger students about fiction, anyway. Stella grabbed a cupcake and turned her attention back to Zoe. "Ooh, cool, what's the comic? What's it about? What's your big yellow sun symbol mean?" She launched into rapid-fire questions as was her and Zoe's habit.

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Zoe's eyes widened further as her Head of House clearly knew exactly who she was dressed as. "Yeah! I can't believe you know that, Professor!" She said happily, bouncing a little on her toes. She was a little disappointed that he didn't want to stick around, but gave him a friendly wave as he headed off. "Bye, Professor!" Turning her full attention to Stella, Zoe smiled brightly at her friend. "I'm so glad!" She said happily, admiring Stella's mask. "You look so cool, I'm glad you're having fun!" She would have to drag Stella to Halloween again in future. "It's an internet comic, this is the symbol for the powers this character has! She can see the future and stuff, it's awesome!"