It didn't take long for Trystan to get back into the party room, it looked the same as it had when he'd left to go change.  The tables were still set up, the large alcove in the corner with the comfortable couches, and the imitation bar in the back with the stools around it and a pool table.

The room looked better than it had when he'd imagined it.  With Chloe and Gabe's help, there were now streamers and balloons and glitter (shudder) everywhere. Trystan noticed that in the short moments it had taken him to shower, shave, and get dressed the house-elves had filled the room with all kinds of junk food and as he looked behind the makeshift bar in the back, what looked like every kind of non-alcoholic drink imaginable.

He was sure that the party would start soon so he headed to the back of the room and began to play around with the one pool table that remained glitter free.  He'd never been any good at pool, but no one was here yet, so he wouldn't make a fool out of himself. Now all he had to do was wait for the party to begin.

Figaro had to have someone explain to him how to get to the Room of Requirement three times.  The room of whatnow? They were baffled that Figaro hadn't heard of it - it was famous.  It was like... the best part of Hogwarts Castle.

"I've heard of it, but I don't get it.  Where is it? What's in it?"

Whereever you need it, Figaro! Whatever you want, Figaro!  And what you want right now is a party, so go looking for a party. 

"But where?"

Anywhere, Figaro!

---

The door just appeared.  Appeared where there hadn't been a door before.  And when Figaro stepped inside, he saw a room ready for a party.   There was just one thing wrong - there was nobody here.

"Whooooo....Wait."

He stopped short and lowered his arms.  In each hand he was clutching two bottles each. Around his neck were brightly colored scarves, and his backpack was bulging with food, a beater's bat, and a deflated magical uniform balloon toy.

"Hey.  Trystan."

It was the seventh year Ravenclaw who was kind of a downer.  Figaro didn't know him well, just that he was kind of touchy.  People said he was funny, but Figaro wasn't so sure. 

"Who's winning?" he asked.  The lad was playing billiards by himself.

Trystan looked up when the door opened and saw someone enter.  He didn't know who it was until they got closer and recognized Figaro there.  "I think the room is." Trystan answered of his question who was winning.  "I've never been too good at this game." he put the cue down on the table and looked at him, "I know there's no one here now, but it should pick up soon."

Trystan grabbed his drink that he'd sat down on the edge of the table and took a long drink from it.  "Well, there's plenty of food and drink here, make yourself comfortable." he told him and sat down on a barstool, hoping this party wasn't going to be a complete waste of time.

Figaro shrugged.  The man had a point.  He was here after all, and Figaro was the main reagent for a killer party.  "Right on," he smiled. 

He took his stuff over and dumped it on the bar.  "Where's the - oh."  Just as Figaro was looking for something to play music, he turned to see a record player with a giant blooming bell on it.  In a moment or two more, Three Owl Standard[1] was blaring out, filling the room with music. 

Much cheered and encouraged not only by the music, but by Trystan's assurances the partay would be dead fly,  Figaro clapped his hands and took up the other cue.  With much drama and posturing he bent low over the billiards table and aimed carefully.  "He lines up the shot... he draws back..."

Figaro shot and the colored ball hit four sides of the table before it grazed another ball.  "Your move, MacElroy."

1.	Figaro's favorite band.  At the wiki.

"Right this way, Heinrich," Chloe said, a smile on her face. Her hand was wrapped in his, their fingers laced like trainers. She looked up at him, with bright eyes. It was going to be a fun party. "We're almost there." She said, before they arrived at the Room Of Requirement. She let go of his hand, and paced in front of the wall.

"I need a party to go to. I need a party to go to." A door appeared, and she flashed a smile at Heinrich, as she retook his hand, and guided him through the door. "Ta-da!" She said, looking around the room. She did well. It looked perfect. The glitter was a very nice touch, if she did say herself. "Trystan! This is my boyfriend, Heinrich." God, she loved the sound of that. her boyfriend. "Heinrich, Trystan. He helped me set up the party."

Heinrich grinned and kissed Chloe's hand.  "Evening, Trystan," he said in English that had only a slight hint of German in it.  "Hey Figs.  Still living the dream?"  It was possibly the first time any of the others had seen him in something other than his Durmstrang uniform.  This time he work tan khakis and a shirt made of  dark navy silk.  He'd even left his dagger behind.  He looked around the room, making note of its appearance.   

Durmstrang has nothing like this, at least not that I've found.

"I brought strudel," he added.  "And some very mellow cider."

"Helped /you/ set up the party?" Grinning a bit, Gabriel stood directly behind Chloe when he spoke. Nodding a greeting to the others he stepped away giving her personal space back. Glancing over at the bar with the drinks he silently gave Tipper a hand of applause. The house elf had outdone himself as usual. The other house elves had done brilliantly with the snacks and hearing what the Durmstrang student brought he nodded and offered a smile. "Sounds great to me."

As Chloe had suggested, he had taken the remaining time to clean up. Actually he had taken a full bath. He wore a red shirt, denim jeans, and a pair of riding boots he had brought with him to school though he didn't expect to do any riding while he was here as usual. As was his habit, he levitated something over from the snack bar instead of walking over to get it and took a bite. If any food was leftover, and nobody minded, he was definitely going to hoard it. His mother never could understand how he could eat so much and never gain any weight. He always told her he was growing.

Trystan nodded to Figaro and carefully planned out his next shot.  He leaned down, aimed the pool cue perfectly, took his shot and.... promptly sunk the white ball in the far corner pocket, on the complete other side of the ball he had been trying to sink.  "Maybe next time."

He heard Chloe introduce him to her boyfriend and walked up to them. "Hello Chloe, Heinrich. Yeah, I have no clue when it comes to decorating so I let her have free reign." He noticed that Gabriel had walked in as well and said to him, "Hey Gabriel, you any good at pool?" He walked slowly back over to where the table was and asked Figaro, "Up for another game?"

Thea wandered down the hall, clutching in her hand the note from Chloe that she'd found on her pillow, demanding--in that bubbly, sweet way that made it hard to say no--her presence at some sort of party in the Room of Requirement. Highly hesitant, Thea was trying to put off arrival. Not only had her last foray into the room been more or less disastrous, but she had never been the party type. She could only hope that Mason had gotten an invite too. She didn't think she could get through this without him.

Poking at the stones with her toes, Thea gazed up at the blank expanse of wall, trying to decide whether she could convince it that she actually wanted to attend a party. Perhaps it would sense her reluctance and allow her a reprieve. Unfortunately, a door appeared before her. Now she felt obligated to enter, so with a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach, she pushed against it and eased into a brightly decorated room filled with blaring music that made her crave the soft violin sounds of her Muggle CDs.

Craning her neck desperately, she scanned the room for Chloe's gingery hair. She spotted her friend wrapped around Heinrich, and hesitated to join them, not knowing Heinrich particularly well, or wanting to disrupt whatever led to the happy expression on Chloe's face as she chatted with other partygoers. Hugging the wall, Thea frowned and wondered if she ought to just leave.

"Hey Figs.  Still living the dream?"

"You know it!"  Figaro answered Heinrich and flourished his long cue like a bo staff.  He'd never seen the opinionated Durmstrang boy without his blood red uniform before.  He looked nearly human.  He also seemed inextricably tangled with Chloe Harris, one of the Ravenclaws that Figaro didn't know all that well.  Of course he'd heard about the times where she'd gone off on someone for saying something mean (and it had been Figaro a few times, if he recalled correctly) but she was cool.  And just Heinrich's type.  Well good for them.

"Oi!"  there was now a critical mass to make this gathering a proper party.  He hit the butt end of the cue on the stone floor.

"Shots!"

Figaro didn't wait to see if his suggestion would be appealing, but he went to the bar and uncorked a bottle of Weasley's Logorrhea, and started pouring a small amount of the fizzy blue liquid into a half-dozen glasses.

"C'mon.  It'll wear off in a bit. Don't be boring."  He raised his own glass.  "Cheers!"

Chloe smiled at her boyfriend. It was weird seeing him not in his uniform, but she liked this look. It was more relaxed. More fun. Gabe was rather defensive about who set up the party. She was proud of her decorating job. The room did look good. And Fig was Fig. Good old Fig. Fun old Fig.

She saw Thea sneak in the side of the party, trying to blend into the background. "Thea! Come join us!" She said with a hand ushering her towards herself. She had a kind smile on her face. "Don't be a loner."

Chloe walked towards Fig, who was pouring little glasses of some liquid. Odds are she'd be fine. Oh God! What was she thinking? Well, it was a party. Heinrich was there, and if anything happened, Thea was there to pull her out of the fire. "Bottoms up." She said, raising her own glass.

Freezing like a deer in headlights, Thea turned slowly, gritting her teeth, towards the sound of Chloe's voice. Just as she had been about to slip out, her roommate was calling her over, and Figaro was breaking out what looked like alcohol. Reluctantly, Thea dragged herself over to the small group of people and gave a half-hearted wave.

She pursed her lips as Chloe downed half a glass of some mysterious, potent-smelling blue liquid. "Drinking, Chlo? Really?" she asked tersely, her brow furrowed. She did not want to be around if everyone started getting drunk. Drunk people were sloppy and slurry and foolish.

"Figs, you are an evil little man,"  Heinrich said with a chuckle.  "Why not go all the way and do shots of veratiserum?"  He reached for one of the glasses.  He'd encountered the fizzy truth serum before, in a seminar where he'd been handed the list of secrets of one of the other students just before he drank it.  He was strong willed enough to resist it but that didn't mean he was entirely immune to it.  He took a sip.

"You know, somebody who can resist this stuff could stand there and say some amazingly obnoxious stuff, all under the cover of being forced to be honest."  He looked at Figaro with a twisted grin.  "Can you really be sure it's them forced to tell the honest truth or just trying to get away with being nasty?  Put that one in your pipe and smoke it."

If the pasty was starting with shots of Weasley's Logorrhea, there was a very good chance that it was going to go downhill fast.

A six and seventh year party... Mason looked at the invitation, grimacing. Sonny had never been to an actual party, except the muggle parties the kids in the neighborhood threw once and a while that he was forced to go to. He looked at the invitation- it was Chloe's writing. She had invited him. He hoped that Thea and Chloe would be there, and Rohan wouldn't. He would check it out. Mase threw on a casual outfit and walked through the halls, his sneakers squeaked on the cold floors as he walked alone.

Hawkins paced in front of the door. A place for him to party. He stepped into the room. A very bright, glittery room. Ugh, glitter, he'd be washing it out of his clothes until summer holiday. A handful of students, including Thea and Chloe, stood by a table, drinking shots of... something. Mason shuffled between the billiards tables and tables holding tons of junk food. He slid next to Thea. "What's going on? Am I late?"

Rohan brusquely walked down the seventh floor hall, anticipating his reaching the Room of Requirement.  He wouldn't miss a party for 100 galleons, especially when all the students in sixth and seventh year were invited to join.  He was going to try to avoid Mason, or at least not say a word to Hawkins.  Whenever either one of them spoke to each other, it always ended in a fight. 

Whatever.

  As he reached the place where the door of the room should have been, he asked for a party.  He sauntered in the room, spotting a few sixth years, but only one seventh.  The room was decorated interestingly…  and the centerpiece of the party appeared to be a fizzy drink.  "Hiya.  What's this?"  He asked, taking a glass from the table.