Outfit

It was long after classes were over with, but Bella's day had not finished. There was still much work to be done. She stood outside in the entrance courtyard preying upon those who passed by having them take a flier. It was a piece of parchment that was scrawled over with big, bold letters:

"WROCK BAND AUDITIONS!
Hogsmeade Weekend Saturday, 2PM - 6PM at The Three Broomsticks!"

She grew frustrated after several people turned her down flat, one student remarking that it was unlikely anyone would want to be in a band with someone like her... Bellatrix knew what that meant. She had nobody but herself to blame for such criticism. Couldn't anyone at Hogwarts tell in the past week and a half that she'd changed? Didn't anybody care? Didn't anyone want to get to know her? Heatedly, the Slytherin teenager paced back and forth around the entrance courtyard while she waited for someone else to come out of the school onto the grounds.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered between clenched teeth. "I guess that means that people HAVE NO TALENT!"

This last part she yelled after the boy who had made the hurtful comment. He was already gone; he couldn't hear her. She knew that, but it was a poor attempt to make herself feel better. Old habits were hard to kill and the urge to jinx that boy was overwhelmingly strong. To calm herself down, Bellatrix reached up to play with the microphone necklace dangling around her bosom. She closed her eyes, whispered to herself to calm down and that it wasn't worth it. When she felt the urge disappear, Bellatrix again paced the courtyard, fliers in hand.

"It's not like I'm going to attack people for auditioning. I mean, even if they're low-life gits... I've changed, haven't I? I think so." Her blue-eyed gaze turned to stare at a crowd gathering around the lake, sighing almost sadly. "I wish I knew for sure..."

Mace was wondering lost in thought. Unfortunately the Hogwarts campus didn't lend to the same feeling for wondering. What Mace was contemplating had to do with music...specifically what he had been doing with music and whether or not he could do more than pirate the school with a CD collection. It was basically a step up from trolling, and not in the giant-related monstrosities that carried clubs. To help in thinking, he was wearing his fedora that had space for a few humming pygmy puffs. He liked to think that their resonance would rejigger his brain with new inspirations.

After the umpteenth time of running into the lake, because honestly there was either the off limits woods or the lake that would get mighty cold soon, Mace heard an outburst that interrupted the current ambient noise level he had garnered. "HAVE NO TALENT!"

He turned one way, a cluster of people by the lake that didn't appear to be the source of the noise. He turned another way, back to the castle courtyard, in time to register the scowl of some girl standing there. He came closer, his footfalls striking paving instead of grass.

She had two toned hair in big streaks, funky fashion and a big wad of some kind of papers.

Mace made a pathetic deduction. "You must be local. And talent scouting for something."

Bellatrix whirled around in time to see someone standing there during her silent and partially controlled temper tantrum, letting out an audible gasp of surprise. It was a student she hadn't seen before and after six years of living at Hogwarts, Bellatrix should have known everyone except the first years. The look of ultimate surprise on her face started to fall away with his comment.

"You must be local. And talent scouting for something."

Without giving her actions much thought, the Slytherin sixth year took one of her fliers and thrust it out at him roughly. Her blue eyes ran over his image before she finally said something in reply.

"I'm starting a wrock band and I'm trying to get people to spread the word about auditions." She gave a jerk of her head to shake her bangs out of her eyes. "The auditions are at Hogsmeade if you're interested."

It was then that Bella's ears picked up on a faint humming noise. She looked up at the clouds, then at the castle itself, some students passing by that were avoiding her so they wouldn't have to take fliers, and finally her gaze landed on him again. Curious to see whether or not the noise was actually coming from him, she moved a little closer and turned her head to listen better. It was coming from him!

"What's that noise?"

Bellatrix leaned this way and that trying to figure out where on his person the sound was coming from. His pockets, maybe? Nothing was moving in them. She circled him and, at last, pinpointed the sound that was coming from...his head? The teenager reached up without permission and removed his fedora to reveal the Pygmy Puffs.

"Why do you have Pygmy Puffs on your head? You're a bit of a looney, aren't you, carrying those things around in a hat."

She realized afterward that he might have taken this wrong. People didn't like being called looney. She recalled her sister informing her of that once before during their 4th year. To ease his mind, she gave him a smile.

"I'm quite fond of loonies," she hoped that somehow would take away the offensiveness of her statement.

"Wrock, huh? At the village?" Mace skimmed the literature she handed to him. 2PM - 6PM. "Sounds brill. You wouldn't be needing a saxman by any chance?" That went the path as more of a rhythm and blues or 80's pop rock band that had saxophone. She sounded to be going the garage band route minus the garage. The last time he had been in the village he hadn't noticed any sheds for flying cars.

"What noise?" His eyes strayed to the lake again. Instead, she leaned over and lifted the hat off his head.

"Why do you have Pygmy Puffs on your head? You're a bit of a looney, aren't you, carrying those things around in a hat."

"Now how did they get in there?" Mace mused, unfazed by the revelation that he was carrying puffs. "Coulda sworn they were riding on the brim. Must've hid when I strayed close to the Creatures class section of the forest. Puffs have already been deemed 'easy pickings' to all the predators in there.

He grinned at her. "I'm not a loonie, that's a Canadian coin. I've been mistaken for metal before but nothing so harmless."

"Call me Mace."

The offer of a saxophone was a little straight-forward for Bella. She couldn't help but continue to stare in a daze at the Pygmy Puffs in his head. They distracted her completely from answering his question right off hand. So cute and yet so... So... They were creepy. It was just the only word she could use to describe them: creepy. How could they be that cute and not be somewhat evil?

"I'm not a loonie, that's a Canadian coin. I've been mistaken for metal before but nothing so harmless. Call me Mace."

The blue eyes dropped to stare at his face again and she discovered that her mouth had been hanging open in that dumbfounded expression. Bellatrix blinked several times as her brain switched back on.

"Oh! I'm Bella. No! Bellatrix. Bellatrix Dark," she said with a final nod. "As for your sax, I umm.. I'm not sure. Bring it to the audtions and I'll know then."

Another haggle of students left the castle and were walking past her. If they thought they could get away, they were wrong. Bellatrix rushed in front of them and handed each a flier with a smile. They looked at each other and laughed, carrying on with their conversation and their stroll. Only one of them took a flier, but it had been with a grimace. The Slytherin student walked over to a bench and sat down with a sigh. He still hadn't left. She glanced up at him, her shoulders sagging in gloom.

"This seems mad to you, doesn't it?" Before she knew it, she was going off on another one of her rants and throwing her hands wildly in frustration at the people that passed. "I know it's ridiculous, but I just thought that maybe one person at this ruddy school would bother taking a bloody flier! I didn't expect to be sitting here all day having to force people to take one. Mind you, I did expect people wouldn't be entirely open to the idea but this--UGH! I want to hex something!"

Despite the urge to just start firing hexes and jinxes everywhere, Bellatrix didn't reach for her wand. She threw the fliers down in front of her and put her head in her hands trying to calm herself down. Great, Bella, she told herself. The one person that does take a flier and you're running him off by losing your temper. Suddenly, Bellatrix jerked her head up and locked her eyes on him.

"Tell me something. Am I honestly mad for doing this?"

Mace double checked the date. Should he be bringing each of them or just the biggest as a show of cool? He settled for Baritone, should be impressive. As he watched her go about business, he herded the puffs off of his head and onto the brim of his hat where they would be more comfortable. He placed it all back on his head.

Seemed odd that she wasn't getting any other interest in her band. Mace had rotated through a few back in the states, bands at Salem or in his muggle neighborhood where he did his best to hide magic. Course, there was the infamous moment of the pygmy puff that hid in his saxophone case. "What the heck is that?" "Sax brush. Fits in the bell and cleans it out. Don't you have one?" "Have one, I've never heard of them." "Shows what you know, can't even maintain proper maintenance of your axe." "Did that thing just mew?" "Mew? Aren't you a strange one, imagining cat noises when there aren't any."

They way Bellatrix vented her problems, there was likely some higher mountain of baggage manifested from the Hogwarts popularity pecking order that Mace wouldn't be able to understand. He shrugged all the same, he'd just met her and she seemed cool enough.

"Mad? What's mad is I thought the Frenchies were going to be stuck up prudes but I'm starting to find that Hogwarts is barely different. You're probably talking to people that couldn't play their way out of a wet paper sack. Take the other week when I set up shop and there's barely any reaction to the tunes I picked.[1] It's not that I was out of the way where I was stationed but no reaction from the castle at large. Not a peep. As if everyone goes around with cotton shoved in their ears."

He sat next to her on the bench, neck kept level for the passengers on his hat. "Or who knows, maybe your handout approach is wrong. Is that your only option, or is there a bulletin board somewhere you could post fliers?"

1.	Sept 6 - Good Morning Hogwarts

"Mad? What's mad is I thought the Frenchies were going to be stuck up prudes but I'm starting to find that Hogwarts is barely different. You're probably talking to people that couldn't play their way out of a wet paper sack. Take the other week when I set up shop and there's barely any reaction to the tunes I picked.[1] It's not that I was out of the way where I was stationed but no reaction from the castle at large. Not a peep. As if everyone goes around with cotton shoved in their ears."

Such comments forced a giggle from the teenager, despite her angry disposition. She lifted her head from her hands when he sat down and watched the pygmy puffs minding their own business and making noises.

"r who knows, maybe your handout approach is wrong. Is that your only option, or is there a bulletin board somewhere you could post fliers?"

Once again, she pushed some hair out of her eyes and slipped off the bench to the ground to pick up the fliers. Why hadn't she thought of that? Bellatrix felt so stupid, like she was wasting her time with all this. She honestly had no clue what she was doing. How was she even supposed to get the band together to practice?

"The only bulletin I can post this up on is in the Slytherin common room, but..." She glared at the ground, clenching the papers tighter. "No one in my house would join. It would be mental to try and put up a flier there. I'm doing this trying to get students to tell their friends, but everyone from Hogwarts already knows my... Well, they know what I'm like."

With a sigh, Bellatrix stood up fully and smoothed out her zebra-striped skirt before she glanced around the courtyard. Surprisingly, a wonderful idea struck her! Why hadn't she thought of it when she first started talking to him? Turning back to him, there was a wide grin on her face that could be interpreted as malicious, as most of her grins were interpreted that way.

"You can help," it wasn't a question. "You can post some fliers up in your dorms and see if anyone's interested. At least one of you Yan--er, Americans--are free-spirited enough to try out for a band. If you are, why not some others that came with you?"

Swiftly, the Slytherin counted out about five fliers from her pile and handed them to him with an expectant smile. It didn't seem as though Bellatrix was going to give him a choice in the matter. After all, there was no point in auditioning if no one else would show up to be in the band.

"The only bulletin I can post this up on is in the Slytherin common room, but...No one in my house would join. It would be mental to try and put up a flier there. I'm doing this trying to get students to tell their friends, but everyone from Hogwarts already knows my... Well, they know what I'm like."

"That's weird, isn't it?" Mace chose another point entirely to Bellatrix's concerns. "You guys having the dorms with so much security. So you can't go bug a friend for homework help or to shoot the breeze? There's got to be a spot you can hand in fliers to get them in the other dorms." Salem had Halls for student housing. While each year's cluster of rooms was secure, the main level was open for anyone to come visit. He wondered why a school would ever shackle students in one spot only.

Then she stood up animated, saying how he could help. "Sure," Mace said. He thought through the rolodex of the musically inclined at SWIM that he had found out after years of living together. It was a surprisingly short list, either from a lack of cool from the student populace as a whole, or Mace having a selective memory. "Jak plays the guitar, she'd probably like it." He chuckled when thinking of the infamous Quodpot bet. "Parker plays drums, well, mashes them into a pulp if she gets into it. Then you've got Jonesy, that's Tracey, and Sam as some of the arguably best singers. Though Tracey's loud and Sam mostly knows hymns." He kinda wondered what Sam would think of some of these foreign girls, like the vibe coming off from Slytherin.

"So with me that's what, five potentials for your auditions? Probably a few more I haven't thought of."

"That's weird, isn't it? You guys having the dorms with so much security. So you can't go bug a friend for homework help or to shoot the breeze? There's got to be a spot you can hand in fliers to get them in the other dorms."

The Slytherin girl paused to think about it. She had never really questioned the school's dormitories before. It was a tradition to sort the students into one of four houses. Had anyone else really questioned it? She tilted her head to the side, puzzled, and looked at him.

"When you put it that way, it does seem silly, doesn't it? My twin sister is in Ravenclaw and so is my best friend. I also have a cousin in Hufflepuff. We don't get to see each other except in class or meal times. Or dances."

Somehow, the Dark girl had completely missed his point of getting those she associated with to post her fliers up in their common rooms. It was several seconds later that she finally caught on to what he was saying, but by that time, he had started talking again. As he went through the list of Salem students who played, she contemplated how it would look to the public if everyone in the band was American and she, the lead singer, was the only European.

"So with me that's what, five potentials for your auditions? Probably a few more I haven't thought of."

Bellatrix beamed at him. How exciting! Regardless of how many Americans, Europeans, or for all she cared muggles and crups were in her band, at least she'd have a band. That was the first step to becoming a Wrock Star. Or at least, she assumed it was. Bellatrix was trying to follow the path of common sense: if you get in a band and play everywhere with loads of fans, you'll be a Wrock Star. Rather, that was her way of thinking, but she felt she was on the right track.

"Do you think you can bring them to Hogsmeade weekend? I haven't seen a schedule for this month, so it's likely to be next month."

"Barely see family, huh?" Hogwarts was sounding more and more like a prison to the young American. Or a really complex detention center. "Well, it's not like I live with my sisters because they only have the two years of school so they still room with their peers in one of the Junior Halls. Couldn't imagine them split up. If they were they'd probably swap roles on rotation." Come to think of it Merry Sherry and Cherry had come to Hogwarts where would they fit in? They are shared a similar collective personality but there were miniature differences. Given what he gathered of the House system Sherry, being the brightest, would be Ravenclaw; Cherry, being the boldest, would be Gryffindor; and Merry, who smoothed things over between her sisters would be Hufflepuff. And watch, they would be telling each other how to get in all the dorms and switch places just to mess with people.

"Sorry, have I mentioned my triplet kid sisters yet?"

"Heck, we're all killer for a chance to get off campus." Sam may still take some persuading. Mace wasn't sure if the music Bellatrix was looking to make was against his ethos, or whatever it was. "But you don't even get to go to this village once a month? Criminey jickets!" This was why Mace was so glad the Americans had seceded from the British. Facing seven years of pent up stipulations would have been torture.

"I doubt the other foreigners will have much to offer. Cello and French Horn, most likely, and whatever the instruments you see Eastern Europeans and Russians play."

"Barely see family, huh? Well, it's not like I live with my sisters because they only have the two years of school so they still room with their peers in one of the Junior Halls. Couldn't imagine them split up. If they were they'd probably swap roles on rotation. Sorry, have I mentioned my triplet kid sisters yet?"

"No, you haven't. I used to imagine what it would be like to have a third twin. She'd be named Leatrix and she'd be in Gryffindor. Beatrix, my twin, is in Ravenclaw. Though, if we had a third, I'm sure Bea would be quite upset all the time and I wouldn't like that. I cause enough trouble for her on my own.."

Bellatrix's sentence and thought trailed away. Until last year, she never though about how much trouble she caused her twin sister. Lil Bee was tough and witty to be sure, but Bellatrix had a knack for distressing her twin overly much. This year, though, she was going to try to be a good girl and not put her twin into a tough situation.

"I doubt the other foreigners will have much to offer. Cello and French Horn, most likely, and whatever the instruments you see Eastern Europeans and Russians play."

"French horn?"

The Slytherin began cackling and holding her sides from the fit of laughter. She could easily imagine her auditions with the Americans going well and, out of nowhere, a Beauxbatons pretty boy turned up on stage and started lamely tooting a French horn. When she couldn't laugh about it any longer, she stood back upright to catch her breath and continued the conversation with a wide grin.

"I wouldn't mind a cello player, if they can play it right. And I don't mean in the usual sense of playing cello. I mean wrock style, y'know? Oi, do you think you can help later this month? Passing out fliers, I mean. It's all I can think of unless...unless you've got a better idea?"

"Rugrats, the lot of them. So you're a twin?" Mace filed this information away for later. "And you're a trouble maker. Does that make you the evil twin, or is your sister not that nice to begin with?"

He grinned as she convulsed with laughter. Not one of the best or farthest reaching jokes in all of comedy but well timed for effect.

"Oi, do you think you can help later this month? Passing out fliers, I mean. It's all I can think of unless...unless you've got a better idea?"

"Offer them a pygmy puff with the fliers, I've got loads." For this country being the originator of the breed, the pet wasn't as popular as it had become in America.

"Rugrats, the lot of them. So you're a twin? nd you're a trouble maker. Does that make you the evil twin, or is your sister not that nice to begin with?"

Her smile faltered a little. Bellatrix used to be very proud when people called her the darker of the two. Now she wasn't so proud. This summer had brought her into a new mindset and she had started to rethink her approach to making friends. Was it really a good thing to be darker? Or was it better to be like Beatrix? The Slytherin girl tried to look bright just the same.

"I'm the darker of the two. When I'm in a foul mood, I just whip out my wand and jinx someone. Plus, I used to brood a lot." In case he got the wrong impression, she added hastily, "But I promise to watch my temper with the band. Actually, the band is my new outlet instead of jinxes."

"Offer them a pygmy puff with the fliers, I've got loads."

"All right then," she smiled. "Bring your collection of fuzzballs to the Great Hall this Saturday. It's Hogwarts Club Day. I'll try to spread the word as quickly as I can between now and then, but we can give away free pygmy puffs to people who want to try out for the band. We can set up a booth for people to take fliers--and pygmy puffs. Sound all right?"

She gave him a smile.

"Huh." Mace honestly didn't see how twins could stand each other. Any time one of the triplets had a flair up with another, well, there was a spare sister to side with. It was nice to know Bellatrix wasn't going to be so itchy with the jinxes, so he wouldn't have to come up with a shield.

"Saturday, sure thing," Mace replied. "Been meaning to clear out the youngest brood anyways. If I start attempts at breeding alternative patterns into the puffs, I can't have more than I could handle." Which brought to mind a giant pile of fuzz cascading out from the Salem dorms. "So yeah, I'll be there. And I guess you already know that I'll sign up."

"Saturday, sure thing. Been meaning to clear out the youngest brood anyways. If I start attempts at breeding alternative patterns into the puffs, I can't have more than I could handle. So yeah, I'll be there. And I guess you already know that I'll sign up."

"Excellent!" She grinned.

This had certainly been an exciting period of time for Bella. She had gone from overly frustrated to calm in a matter of minutes. It was something about Mace's presence that calmed her down. Something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Maybe it was his way with words? Or the fact that he was just as odd as she was, maybe even more-so. Either way, she put it at the back of her mind.

"I'll go try to post these in the other common rooms, then. See you Saturday!"

The resident psycho of Slytherin flounced away with every intention of posting the fliers up in the Slytherin Common Room. He had given her enough confidence to do so after her little chat with the Salem person. Hopefully come Saturday, he'd be there and she wouldn't end Club Day firing off a round of hexes and jinxes, followed by a visit to the Headmaster's office. That wasn't her plan. No, she would be civil and calm...so long as Mace was there.

[OOC: There's the wrap-up post.]