Entrance Hall
8:32 PM

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Damien felt like he was seven years old again, standing in front of the mirror with his mother behind him, fixing his tie, combing his hair back, making sure everything was neat. The only difference was this time his mother wasn't here watching him like a hawk, and that was a welcome relief. He clipped his black tie to his dress shirt, then smoothed out the shirt to make sure his dog tags didn't show through. Once he was satisfied with how he looked, he walked out of his dorm room and raced towards the Great Hall, he had ten minutes until he was supposed to meet up with Imari, plenty of time.

He looked around, fascinated by all of the people who got really dressed up for the ball. He'd never had anything like this in America, technically there was senior prom next year, but he never wanted to leave Hogwarts. It was so different, and it had grown on him so much.

He tugged on his cuffs for the fourth time that night, not wanting to mess up his suit jacket. Damien scanned the crowd, looking eagerly for Imari. He could barely contain his excitement, he didn't know what to do with himself. The Salemite had found himself at that stage where he wasn't sure if he was in love, or if this was still just him really liking Imari. He was pretty sure that he was at the edge of falling in love with her, but who knew? He certainly didn't.

Imari stood in front of the mirror in the restroom in the Slytherin dorm and looked herself over once again.  She'd heard from a couple younger boys that she looked good but she couldn't see it.  She sighed and put on her cloak and walked up the stairs towards the Great Hall.  Imari looked around for Damien, wondering why she had chose the dress she did because she had never worn a dress that short before and she was sure that she didn't look as good as she thought she did in it.

She turned around with her back to the Great Hall in hopes of seeing Damien somewhere in the crowd, but it was starting to be overwhelming for her as she wasn't used to being in the middle of a large group of people and she could feel her nerves begin to take over and she felt the sudden urge to flee.

Damien scanned the crowd, finally noticing his date for the night. Imari looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and he ran over to her before her fight or flight reaction kicked in. "Hey!" He said, stopping in front of her. He smiled brightly, happy that a girl as beautiful as her would go for a guy like him.

"You look gorgeous, my lady," he said with a bow, taking her hand and kissing it like a gentle men. He wanted to do something goofy to make her smile, because she looked a bit lost at the moment. He stood back up, still holding her hand, and handed her a dark red rose. "This is for you," he said, holding the flower out to her.

Imari smiled as Damien came up to her and kissed her hand.  "Hi." she said shyly before realizing that she still had her cloak on.  "Um, I still have my cloak on, do you know where I can put it?" she really didn't want to take it off, but it was a dance and it wouldn't do to stay hidden in her cloak all night. 

She fidgeted and shifted her balance from one foot to another, not comfortable in her shoes either.  Imari knew that she was taking a bit more effort with her dressing than usual because she actually had a reason to look nicer than she usually did.  Damien.  Imari smiled at the thought of his name.  "I'm so nervous." she told him as she undid the strings of her cloak from around her neck, but kept the cloak covering her dress as she took the rose from him.

Damien sighed with relief, "It's alright, I'm really nervous too. I've never really done something like this before." He smiled, a bit goofy and lopsided, but it was still a smile. He looked around, remembering someone saying something about some sort of cloak room... he wasn't sure exactly where it was, but a house elf came along, offering to take Imari's cloak, promising that it'd be returned to her by the end of the evening.

"Thank you," he said to the elf. Glad he didn't have to go on a search to figure out where they were putting cloaks and such. But Damien felt a bit out of place, most of the people from Hogwarts were wearing dress robes, whereas he had on a suit... it just goes to show how different their cultures where. He extended his arm to Imari, "Shall we?" He asked, nodding in the direction of the Great Hall.

Imari nervously took his arm and allowed him to lead her into the Great Hall, all the while her mind was turning cartwheels in her head.  'Why did I come here?' she thought to herself, 'I hate large crowds, this is not the place for me.' Then she remembered that she was with Damien and turned her head to look up at him. 

"I haven't done anything like this either.  I normall avoid dances and balls because there are too many people." she told him.  It was the truth, she had even told her mother on several occasions that they would celebrate her birthday alone if her parents invited too many people.  It had happened once, on her 10th birthday and she locked herself in her room and refused to come out.

"Well, if you think there's too many people, we can go outside for a while." He said, leading her into the Great Hall. He was positively beaming at this point, with Imari on his arm, he felt like he was walking on clouds. No one had ever made him feel like this, so happy and airy. Damien smiled at her, hoping to reassure her nervousness, but he knew it would take a while before she could really relax.

He had to admit it, he wasn't too comfortable in the ball atmosphere, with people walking all around. And dancing. Still, the Hall was beautiful, and everyone was dressed to the nines. It was , but then Damien chided himself... This was a magical school, was it not? "Would you like to dance?" He asked, looking at the couples swirling about on the dance floor. "I'll admit though, I haven't danced since my ballet classes when I was eight," he whispered, "And if you tell anyone I took ballet classes, then I'll make you dance in here all night long." He said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "I'm just joking, well, not about the ballet part..."

Imari looked up at Damien when he admitted to taking ballet classes when he was younger.  "Why would you take ballet?" she asked curiously.  She looked around the room and there really were a lot of people in there, "I'm not to fond of dancing, I've never been really good at it." she admitted.  "I would love to take a walk with you instead." she smiled and squeezed his arm gently.

Damien smiled and turned Imari around to walk outside into the courtyard, pausing as the house elf who had collected her cloak before returned it, noticing her leaving the Hall.

"Well, my mom always had wanted a daughter, so she tried to influence me... it didn't really work. I only danced for three years." He admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "Did you ever take a dance class?"

"No," Imari laughed as she held on to Damien's arm, "that was my sister." then she sobered as she said, "When she found out she couldn't do magic, she threw herself into anything and everything she could.  Dancing, studying, singing, music, just to prove she was just as good as me." She looked at the ground, "Worked for my mum, but not my da." Imari sighed and looked away from Damien, "he made it quite clear that I was the favorite."

"Well don't worry," Damien said, hoping to lighten her spirits. "Dancing is nothing great anyways, a lot of pain and clumsiness and general embarrassment on my part."

"I'm really glad you said you'd come here with me, even if we don't dance, that's alright. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to dancing that much." He smiled, "Do you want to walk outside with me?"

Imari brightened and looked back at him, "I'd love to walk outside with you, I heard they decorated out here too." she said, easily forgetting her momentary sadness over her sister.  She thought about Damien, she knew she had only known him for a couple months, but she felt something for him that she never thought she'd feel for anyone.  Imari decided that she was going to say something to Damien about how she felt, she only hoped that he would feel the same way.
[1]

1.	I have a plan for this, but I'll tell you over PM unless you want to be surprised.  I do love drama in rping.

Damien was glad that he could change the subject, and he felt good that Imari was somewhat happier now. "Alright then, I think it's this way..." He started, making a turn for the doors. "It is this way right?" He asked, knowing that she would know better than him which way to go. He felt kind of useless, but it was relieved when he finally led them out to the courtyard where a few other people were mingling about.

Snow was drifting elegantly from the sky, and the courtyard looked almost surreal in it's astounding beauty. There were twinkling lights lining the edge and bundles of holly tucked in little pots in the window bays to the outer laying sidewalk. "I think I found it," he said softly, mostly to himself, congratulating himself on the inside for remembering where to go.[1]

1.	Go for it! I love surprises! And drama, I can't get enough drama!

Imari smiled as she saw the sight of the decorated grounds, "Let's go to the gardens out by the greenhouses, it's not too cold to walk a little farther." she told him and tugged gently on his arm to lead him towards the gardens. [1] Once there she found a bench and turned to Damien, "Damien, there's something I want to tell you, but I'm not sure quite how to say it." she said nervously as she sat down on the bench, spreading her cloak out around her so the bench wouldn't be so cold.

"I have been wanting to say this for a couple days now, but I wasn't sure if you felt the same way, so I'm just going to say it and don't interrupt me please or I might lose my courage."  She didn't look at him, she didn't know if she could get it all out if she looked him in the eyes when she said it.  Imari took a deep breath and then blurted it out gracefully, "I think I might be falling in love with you."  She didn't meet his eyes now either, in case she saw something too close to rejection in them.[2]

1.	I'm going a little off here, I don't know if there are gardens by the greenhouses or not... and I'm imagining a bench somewhere...
2.	that's not the drama part, it's still coming

Damien allowed Imari to lead him towards the gardens, losing all sense of direction. He thought he had regained his internal pride by finding the courtyard, but he was now utterly and hopelessly lost. He sat down next to her on the bench and waited for her to say what she needed to say.

To be honest he was quite nervous, she seemed nervous, so he was too. What was she going to tell him? Was she breaking up with him? But could she break up with him if they weren't really an official couple yet?

And when she told him that she thought he was falling in love with him, he breathed a soft sigh of relief. "Well, Imari, I think... I think I'm sort of falling in love with you too." He said softly, his eyes looking down at the ground, not really wanting to look up at her because his pulse was racing and he really needed to get his emotions under control.