Slytherin Common Room;
Afternoon tea time, 4PM

By all purposes, Amara thought birthdays were something irrelevant and birthday parties even more so. Whyever would one celebrate nearing death, year after year? Regardless... In order to protect her secrets, she'd have to follow through on her plan, keep appearances, socialize, make connections and so on. Rather tedious, in all honesty, but so was having to fight your inner demons twenty four hours a day. So it was quite a lovely surprise and perfect timing when the gifts from her cousins arrived on the night of the sixth. Even if the note was signed by the entire family, Mara knew the desserts were really from Octavian. Timeea was too crippled by the expectations of her own family to remember such things and Amara and Amalia had never had much love for each other. So it was then that she decided the best way to get reacquainted with her housemates would be to host a small impromptu get-together on Sunday.

However, things never quite turned out as she planned them lately. On the morning of her birthday Amara Báthory woke with a particularly vicious thirst for... chaos. Her nightstand currently housed a small box full of dubious little potions courtesy of her family's Maleficium. There was one in particular she desperately wanted to see in action. It's effects were strangely beautiful, Amara thought. With one look towards the stasis-held baked goods, she giggled softly to herself and set to arrange her little tea party.


In a small corner of the Slytherin common room stood a table full of mouth-watering desserts: a chiffon cake with strawberry filling, covered in elegant black and white fondant, cupcakes, fondant bonbons, meringues, eclairs, chocolate truffles, small fruit tarts, cream puffs, miniature cheesecakes and much more. Each little dessert was enchanted to shoot sparks of silver and black and show glowing letters wishing the silver-haired girl happy birthday the second someone touched them. On a smaller accent-table stood a black porcelain tea set, surrounded by a dozen little metallic boxes, each one holding a different sort of tea. 

The birthday girl herself was fumbling about with the last arrangement, smiling knowingly to herself whenever she was out of sight. Turning around, she clasped her hands together and straightened her back. Attempting for a shy smile she cleared her throat. "I'm not in the habit of celebrating my birthday—especially now" she added methodically, letting her smile falter for a second. "But my cousins sent me enough confections to feed a small army" she continued turning her head behind to the table. "So,if you'd like some, please help yourself. Or if you'd like to join me for some tea—" she shrugged clasping her hands together in front of her body.

Xavier entered the common room with something just above a scowl on his lips. He didn't particularly know the younger year that was celebrating her birthday but he had been talked into attending by his cousin. With everything that had been happening with Strellie lately, not to mention Bellatrix coming back into his life, Cadance was the one person he had been spending his time with who didn't drive him crazy. Which meant there was very little he wouldn't do for her including attending this party.

He was decked out in a black silk dress shirt with a vest over top and pressed trousers underneath. He had managed to slip his flask in the back of his belt again, though he had kept that little detail to himself. Cadance was an absolute vision on his arm as they made their way into the room.

Xavier beelined it for the sweets table, picking up a chocolate eclair. He wasn't a big sweets person but the chocolate did tend to go nicey with the whiskey he had in his flask, "Happy Birthday Bathory."

Cadance entered the room on the arm of her ever handsome cousin, who had managed to perfect the smoldering bad boy look. Recently he had been the only other man she was allowed to be seen with. Her brother was still as protective as ever and when she wasn't with one blood relative or another (she had even been forced to endure Kyson's company on occasion) she was persistantly escorted by her betrothed. It made her choice in friends rather limited. Thankfully she adored Xavier and preferred his company over most of her other options.

She was wearing a beautifully ruffled silk blouse and a deep forest green skirt that had ruffles and rouching along the one side. Her golden hair was twisted and twirled in a series of braids and ringlets. The whole ensemble was topped off with a silver necklace set with a series of emeralds.

As Xavier went straight for the treats, Cadance came by Amara's side, "If I had known about this earlier darling, I would have had your present ready. It should arrive by Owl no latter than next week. I talked with some contacts I have in Paris, one of their newer up and coming designers is working on a new line of robes and dresses for the modern witch. He'll be making a custom bodice for you. Of course I had to guess at your measurements but I'm brilliant with a few adjustment charms. Just let me know if it doesn't fit and I'll have you fix up right in no time."

You could never grow up affluent/high society on this continent without avoiding the concept of Sunday afternoon tea. A phenomena that, when compared day by day to any other tea times, shouldn't be all that different. But because it was on Sunday it was blown into a whole event where family image/reputation could be ruined if you did not invite the right folk or show up if you were expected, regardless if you had any tea or cake at all.

Amongst the other pleasantries to be gotten from enrolling at Hogwarts, Casey had considered no longer being forced to Sunday afternoon teas to be a major perk. So it was with gritted teeth behind tight lips several minutes ago when Casey noticed what Amara was setting up. There was no escaping it now that he was seen in the vicinity so he retreated to his dorm to summon Dingy to fetch smarter dress robes.

The house elf had found not the green tuxedo styled outfit Casey had last worn at the Yule Ball (half the Ball if he was being honest) but a fancier piece than the uniform. Casey didn't keep too many dress robes at school. Sure, he dressed smart because that was expected, but not impractical-swanky.

That needed pressing so Dingy popped down to laundry for an iron. And a minute later when the elf returned Casey froze when he heard something clattering along the floor before it struck a window out to the lake. A bunch of soup cans that formed an L/7.

It was only the privacy of the room that allowed Casey the chance to groan with disdain while holding a hand to his forehead. Not that he had a headache. When it came to house elves you never forgot the Canterbury elf after seeing it...all three-fifths of him.[1] Casey had seen him scant times before at functions at the Canterbury Estate, never at the school or anywhere else really because he'd likely fall apart during the strain of travel. Which he technically had as the elf hobbled after his false leg of soup cans, quite the sight given that his only leg was on the same side as his only hand with a fire poker crutch. No wonder back when Professor Jowd had been rounding up house elves for goblin rebellion reenactments[2] he had placed the stumpy one as Urgelmock the Martyr, in short the first one to bite it at the Hogsmeade skirmish.

Casey didn't even have to ask Dingy anything, just freeze his uniquely expressive eyebrows in the right place. "Dingy ran into Stumps under the castle," the elf began as the other muttered something, bent over the false leg. Dingy kept the iron hot in the central stove in the room as he arranged the suit on an ironing board. "Stumps's mistress has tasked Stumps to deliver a birthday parcel to Miss Báthory..." So that's what the black ribboned box was that had gotten flung onto the bed. "Of which Dingy asked Stumps if Dingy could help Stumps with delivery, but Stumps said no, so Dingy said Dingy will help Stumps to the Slytherin dorm."

So it was, when Casey finally made it to the common room tea party in still warm dress robes, he was making a great show of not making any notice at all that he knew of what had trailed along behind him. Because the stubborn elf took it as a matter of pride to get the gift to the recipient and/or a gift table, whichever came first, even if it had to hobble twice, pause, fix the package higher into the air with a Hover Charm and continue the progression forward.

Nope, no longer going to pay it any more attention, as Casey took to surveying the treats on hand. Although speaking of house elves it would be nice if Dingy knew or could know if any Hogwarts elves had assisted with the set-up, because desserts could be deceptive 'poisons' to those with food allergy lists longer than most peoples arms.

"What teas are there?" He asked Amara when he made it to the table with all the ornate tea boxes. "Hopefully something black."

1.	Stumps
2.	Recruiting Recruitors / Upon These Stones - Nov 2009

Amara watched the older housemates walk into the common room with an expressionless face.  She didn't particularly know Tawse and Bulstrode, but she knew of them. Especially the latter. "Thank you very much for the kind gesture, Miss Bulstrode. You shouldn't have bothered, but I'm sure it will be marvelous, nonetheless" Amara said softly to the blonde, smiling shyly. To Tawse, she offered another small smile and inclined her head in gratitude.

As Casey appeared, Amara struggled to keep her face from turning completely sour. She huffed amused at the little elf, following it with her eyes until she was rudely interrupted by O'Doherty. "Black, green, white, rooibos, fruit and more. The tins have labels" she finally deadpanned, with a straight face. As she turned towards the buffet table, she watched the guests from the corner of her eyes with a dubious little smile. Amara grabbed a  macaroon, watching it for a second, then finally tucked it inside her mouth with a little sigh.

Little did the guests know, however, that the desserts were all laced with one intriguing little potion, simply and beautifully called Lacrimi însângerate[1] and the name explained it all, really. The potion caused haemolacria, caused you to involuntarily cry tears of blood. The writings in the Maleficium were old and faded, and rather nonsensical at times, given the creator was raving mad... But the response varied from person to person: one of the original subjects cried just once at a few days, with no visible discomfort while in others it had been extremely acute, causing the afflicted to suffer all other symptoms that came with blood loss: fatigue, anemia, nausea, loss of conscience and so forth. The effects passed on their own depending on the dosage. Each dessert had been laced with enough potion for one day worth of effects. If, however, one indulged in too many sweets... ah, well, who even knew?

Of course the girl would poison herself, as well, the difference, however was that Amara had already ingested a small dose of antidote. The effects were only going to last a couple of hours at worst. And who would be able to suspect her then? Ater all, the sweets had been a present...

1.	ro.Bloodied Tears

While Bellatrix had not received any notice or invitation declaring that Amara's birthday was on this day and would be celebrated in the common room, she still decided to attend. After having come down to the common room and like O'Doherty had seen that the fourth year was setting up, Bellatrix had rushed back up to her dorm to change. Cadance, of course, was much better at dressing for such occasions (as was the missing twin, Beatrix) and it dawned on Bella that maybe she should follow the Slytherin princess's example. She spent over an hour in the dorm room going through her clothes, mixing and matching. Even her most formal ball gowns were discarded into a pile on her four poster. Who would wear such a thing to a birthday tea party? In frustration, Bellatrix had decided that garbing herself in outfits similar to Cadance's was simply not her style. Instead, she chose to go with a formal-casual attire.

She managed to arrive a few minutes after the others which meant she wasn't late. Her outfit was tasteful and yet still felt comfortable to her which was all that mattered if she was going to attend the party of some girl she barely knew. Likewise, while searching frantically through her clothes and accessories for something to impress Cadance and other Slytherins, Bella had also ransacked her trunk to find a gift for the Bathory girl. Since she didn't know her, it was difficult to pick out a good gift. So the sixth year had decided to give the girl a gift that reflected her opinion of Amara: weird and creepy, just like the tea party she was attending.

The corners of Bella's lips tugged into a thoughtful frown at the sight of Cadance on Xavier's arm. It wasn't jealousy or anything like that. She simply hadn't realized that it was proper etiquette to have a male escort to these things. Now that she thought of it, however, she did recall those lessons during her earlier years when her mother had tried to educate her on pure-blood social etiquette. A vague memory of her mother informing her that it was expected for a girl to show up with an escort to formal tea parties, luncheons, and other social gatherings began to brew forth in her mind. Bellatrix looked around and snatched the nearest Slytherin 6th year boy by the arm to drag him across the common room to where Amara and the others were standing.

"Happy birthday, Amara," Bellatrix smiled as pleasantly as possible. "This is for you."

She handed over a small box wrapped neatly by a crimson ribbon tied into a dainty bow. Inside was a necklace with a vial of what could easily be mistaken for blood and a bottle of Dragon's Blood ink. One could never have too much ink at Hogwarts and Bella always liked getting jewelry and accessories as gifts. Why wouldn't any other girl? To make herself a little more presentable, she fiddled with her platinum blonde hair before linking her arm with her random escort's in a more comfortable fashion.

"Cadance," she nodded in greeting, then looked to Xavier. She wasn't sure if she should keep calling him 'Xavier' as she had done so the previous night or if she should stick to their usual greeting. "Er... Mr. Tawse."

That's what came out? Merlin, she'd never get the hang of this!

Erin was excited.  Amara was throwing a tea party.  And tea parties meant sweets.  That probably meant that there would be some form of chocolate.  Or cake.  Or even CHOCOLATE CAKE, which definitely deserved the capital letters.  Though she did spend a fair amount of time with her housemate, she honestly did not know her very well.  Regardless, she had made enough contacts in the fashion world that she could get a high-quality dress at a decent price, so she had procured one for her housemate.  The gift itself was a conservative blue number, which Erin thought the young witch would appreciate more than the semi-atrocities Erin had to wear in her profession.  It had been a feat of will power, but eventually Erin managed to wrap the present, even if the paper was bright and shiny.

Everyone seemed to have been dressing up a fair amount for this party, so Erin wore a light green dress herself, since it was simple enough to deal with.  Skipping down the steps, she saw the birthday girl.  Figuring this was her one chance to sing off-key without getting killed by the glee club, Erin burst into song.

"This is your birthday song! It isn't very long!" Erin sang, smiling. 

"Happy Birthday, this is for you," Erin said, handing her a brightly wrapped box. 

Erin glanced around and quickly realized that everyone but her had a date.  She really didn't care one way or the other, but if her mother wasn't around she rarely followed social etiquette.  Or rather, not so much followed as just got distracted.  Especially when her classmate had gone to the trouble of acquiring all those pastries.  Erin really wanted to try one, but had enough grace not to eat one before the birthday girl.   When she saw Amara eat a macaroon, she couldn't help it...she ate one of the chocolate truffles.  And then immediately burst into tears, which were crimson.  She had a sudden urge to seek something, anything, comforting.  Somehow, she had not noticed it until now but her sister showed up.

"Bella! I can't stop crying!" Erin whined, wanting her big sister to take care of her.

As one of the eldest Darks approached her, Amara's stance tensed and her expression turned vaguely stony. She didn't really know this one, but if her younger sister, Erin, was anything to go by, neither did she wish to further acquaint herself with the blond. She didn't miss the gobsmacked expression on her escort's face either... Not that was simply sad. But the girl was pretty and with her ensemble she was sure bloodies tears would look absolutely lovely on her face. If a little trashy.

"Thank you for your kind felicitation" she replied with a tight, polite smile and an acknowledging bob of her head. She skeptically extended her hand for the gift. "And for the - I'm sure - lovely gift. You shouldn't have bothered" she again smiled as gratefully as she could muster. Turning to her side, and gracefully motioning towards the dessert table she inclined her head towards it. "Please, feel free." And with that, she left the girl to her seemingly awkward greeting of some other housemates.

Turning her head to skim over the common room, her eyes fell on—speak of the devil. She rolled her eyes minutely, scowling under her breath, but plastered a smile just in time for Erin Dark to horribly start singing at her. Dear Morgana, this girl should be nowhere near Hogwarts, let alone Slytherin. With a curt nod of her head and a microscopic smile she accepted the gift and thanked the girl for it. It was just as her classmate left, that she felt the prick in her eyes and she smirked for a second, only to take a deep, steady breath after to prepare herself for, hopefully, a most dramatic interpretation.

When she felt the first warm tear trickle down her cheek, she took her hand to her face, fingers dabbing at it curiously. Lifting her hand at eye level, she inspected the liquid, eyes growing big and empty, mouth parting a little. And just as she was about to put on her little theatrical display—Erin bloody Dark went and ruined it with her screeching voice. With a flare of her nose, she balled her hands into fists along her body and gave out a shuddered little breath. The situation was still salvageable, hopefully.

"I—I don't—what is going on?" she stuttered, hands wiping at her worried face, smearing the blood down her cheeks. "Is this blood? I—I can't stop" Amara sobbed, with big horrified eyes, and a quivering lip. Feeling a tear at the corner of her lips, her tongue darted out instinctively to taste and she quickly took a hand to her mouth. "It—it's b-blood" she managed, words muffled by her hand, eyes flitting chaotically from person to person.