Shortly after curfew.


Osha's schoolmates were slowly trickling into the Room of Requirement, now that the curfew was called and everyone was free to sneakily attend the secret Valentine's Day party[1] she had set up with Aoide's help. The room appeared to take on the appearance of a dance hall tonight - all polished wooden floorboards watched over by colourfully dressed portraits bearing improbable names.

She had given it all some Valentine's flair, obviously. Overhead, there were pink and red streamers and pastel pink clouds that intermittently showered the room with handfuls of glitter. Luckily the glitter would eventually dissolve into nothingness. Tiny stone cherubs were enchanted to totter on their little pedestals, shooting off toy arrows that made their targets want to dance.

"Drinks and food are all set up!!" Osha announced gleefully, gesturing grandly at a table full of crisps and dips and other wonderful, unhealthy snacks.

In all honestly, she wasn't the most romantic witch. Osha wasn't interested in dating or smooching or whatever, at least not yet, but she was ALWAYS in the mood for a party. Time to have fun and blow off some steam, after the tense first term of the year. The Hufflepuff turned to the wireless set by the table and turned the volume up, smiling to herself.

1.	6th Feb - You Are Informally Invited

Zeta Pepper and Kelvin Watkins rolled into the Room of Requirements like party crashers, or at least that was the vibe that Zeta was going for. She'd got them both aviator sunglasses and absolutely drenched them in silver sequins and glitter and enchanted them to sparkle on their own. Zeta'd paired her look with a dark purple lip and tight french braids pulled over her shoulders.

Of course, they weren't crashing anything. They were invited and Zeta and Osha were good friends and roommates. And no one at all cared as much as Zeta and Kelvin being single as Kelvin and Zeta, so there was literally nothing to rebel against. Zeta was just naturally rebellious lately and Kelvin was just naturally dour.

Behind her shiny shades, Zeta lifted her eyebrows. The Room looked great! The Room of Requirement always delivered but she could see Osha's clever touch everywhere. There were already plenty of people there and many of them heeding Osha's siren-call that refreshments were on.

Without looking, without uncrossing her arms, without flinching, Zeta nudged Kelvin and spoke like a secret agent. "Want a bite, or something?"

Kelvin was in a pink shirt and jeans.  The pink shirt was the concession he'd made to the party being a Valentine's day party.  Not that he had a problem with pink. Just with Valentine's day. Of course now that he'd been wearing the most flamboyant sunglasses he'd ever seen let alone worn, his shirt, pants, and face were covered with a fine dusting of glitter as well.  That was probably Zeta's plan. Not that it mattered, the moment he walked into the Room of Requirement, he'd been victim to a glitter shower from one of the pink clouds.

Kelvin forced a smile onto his face, determined to enjoy the night, and silently thanked Zeta for the sunglasses the blocked out some of the pink and provided a shield against the glitter.  He turned to look at Zeta when she nudged him. "The serious look doesn't work," he said with a chuckle, "but yeah, lets get snacks."

It was time to arrive! She had spent her time preparing herself, making sure her hair was right, makeup was done correctly, although ultimately she didn't care how either looked really, well obviously she didn't want to mess it up too badly, but she was fine with the makeup or hair not being perfect, she wasn't mum. She could settle for not being perfect in appearance, or with wearing the same dress twice. This one had been worn a couple of times, still fresh and proper, prim and delicate like it should be. But she'd worn it so far to two weddings and a nice gathering where she was told to look nice and professional. Mum hadn't liked it when she had worn it to a professional meeting but oh well that was her problem.

The dress in question was a very nice one, or so she thought anyway. nice raspberry red colour to it, she adored the colour for not being too red. Originally she was tempted to wear something provocative or very eye catching but she chose against it, it was a valentines party, everybody deserved a good time and to have a chance at romance, so she wouldn't try and ruin it, not even just by being herself but just by wearing something that may upset people. So this she deemed was perfect, the design fitted the occasion aswell! Sleeveless and stopping just above her knees, the dress was loose on her form with a couple of ruffles for the skirt. And as it rose up two heart shapes are designed to rest upon her chest with the rounded tops stopping just below her collarbone. She deemed it was simplistic while also fitting for the night.

In taking time to choose her dress, monologue on her choices, picking to go with pink lipstick to stick out slightly from the dress and hiding the very last remains of her thankfully basically gone but don't want to take any chances with, bruise. She had spent time getting reacquainted with matching raspberry pumpheels, she regretted it, almost causing another bruise. It turned out she had only spent about twenty minutes. Which had left her thirty minutes before the party was set to start. She had wanted to be fashionably late, so she figured the walk to the seventh floor should make her arrive fashionably late. The castle must of been getting revenge for that graffiti however as she found herself arriving almost dead on time to arrive.

She had assumed as she saw several students, along with a prefect enter, she was at the correct room of requirements and not at the other one that only appeared when it wasn't required. Hoping she wouldn't be noticed, as if she was fashionably late, so it would be mid swing and no one would know when she showed up. And no one would know how long she'd have sat in the corner alone for. Facing that knowledge, she entered the room slowly in her hopes of not being spotted.

"The serious look doesn't work," Kelvin said with a chuckle, "but yeah, lets get snacks."

"What?" Zeta'd been sure that cool and aloof would be the right vibe, but apparently not according to King of the Social Scene Kelvin Watkins, this was not so. "If you say so," she said as they made their way over to le snacks. It was a royal affair; the food along with the decorations made it easy to wipe the stoicism from her face as she used tongs to pick through petit fours.

One of them looked like a tiny cherry pie, impossibly small for a pie. She lifted her shades and her shoulders dropped. It was too cute.

She held it up to Kelvin and closed one eye so it looked like he had a whole pie on his head.

"It's a good look," she told him. "Someone must spike the punch," she added to the Prefect.

As soon as Eirene stepped into the corridor on the seventh floor, a door appeared on the wall between two snoozing portraits.

Eirene grinned at Frank, and walked very quietly towards it in her ballet flats.

At the door, she removed her ballet flats, and switched them out for some nicer heels she'd hidden in her purse. Eirene liked to think she'd thought of everything. She'd only had five days since receiving the invitation, and had wasted two of those days agonizing if it were a real invitation, and then spent the past few days deciding what to wear and if she should sneak out and who to go with, and just yesterday, she'd asked Frank in the common room if he'd like to go with her, as friends.

She was so glad he'd said yes! They hadn't actually talked yet, about the state of their friendship since the Hogwarts Howler debacle. They'd been distracted by the news in the Prophet about the wizard they'd met while stranded in Slandermouth.

Eirene was sure it would be fine.

She took another moment to smooth her hair, which she was wearing down for once, and to check her dress, which was more a Christmas party red than a Valentine's Day red, but it would do.

They pushed open the door...

Confetti drifted onto their heads.

Eirene let out a sigh of relief. They'd made it. This was happening. Everything was decorated so nicely, without her help, even. Everyone else was all dressed up too.

"It worked," Eirene said excitedly. "We've sneaked out past curfew successfully, we're in the room of requirement, and look!"

Eirene made a sweeping gesture.

"It's a real party and not a prank!"

Aoide had been a diligent assistant to Osha. If Aoide hadn’t already got a big (half) sister in Ariadne, she would have declared Osha was her big sister instead. Such was the love the first year wished to bestow on the sixth year prefect.

Assisting had really stretched Aoide’s first year magic skills, and she had learned quite a few new spells (admittedly most were related to decorating or pinning streamers) and her leviosa was really coming along. She could lift a chair! (She’d shush anyone who suggested she could have moved it by hand more quickly than her spell though.)

As Osha turned up the wireless, Aoide spun on the spot, a smile spread across her features. She bounced on the spot as Zeta and Kelvin arrived, Zeta looked like a glam version of the tin man from the Wizard of Oz. Kelvin was all in pink. People had got the invitations!

More people! Puffs of pinky glitter showered down as they arrived.

One of the tiny stone cherubs, tottering on a pedestal, shot off a toy arrow, landing in the tight curls of Aoide’s hair. With a surprised whoop, she went from the excited bob to a full blown solo dance in the middle of room in time to the wireless song. Arms in the air, as if her feet were possessed.

“Woooah!” She managed, mid-spin, fingers shimmying down from above her.

Tim half expected Akira to shove her tongue out and try to eat the glitter raining down from the ceiling. It looked like the shiny, edible glitter the house elves decorated cakes with. “Is it edible?” He asked, Akira, half-joking. Well, she was going to try it, wasn’t she?!

The two of them arrived as Aoide began to dance elaborately, just behind Eirene sweeping her arm around to proclaim:

“It’s a real party and not a prank!”

“Have you been to many prank parties?” Tim had to ask his classmate. Akira was clinging to his arm, with a sappy expression[1], the two of them now officially a ‘thing’.

Part of him also wondered whether the staff were permitting this ‘sneak’. Professor Storm didn’t live in the castle any more, which had made such after-curfew escapades much less risky.

1.	As agreed on Discord with Akira

"A real party and not a prank!" Frank repeated Eirene's celebratory statement including mimicking her sweeping gesture. In his rambunctiousness, he channeled just for a moment the spirit of his older brother. While Figaro had attended more than a couple ROR parties, this was Frank's first. He hadn't brought loads of nice clothes to school from Christmas, but he had a nice shirt that wasn't his uniform. It was blue and dotted with smart little beetles. He'd uncuffed the sleeves and rolled them up like in the magazines.

Tim Pepper was there with Akira Hericho - the Ravenclaw commonroom must have emptied out for this.

     “Have you been to many prank parties?”

"Not me," Frank began to answer but they were getting rained on with something tickly and as he turned to shake out his blonde hair, he caught an eyefull of Aoide Shacklebolt going just full out on the dance floor.

"She's making the effort," he observed aloud, made a little uncomfortable at the vigorous dancing. Frank was no kind of dancer (no thank you) and vicarious embarrassment was threatening.

"No, and I don't intend to, Tim," she said seriously, then smiled.

Frank was in a good mood! Eirene knew that showing up with Frank would only intensify the rumors about them, but she'd liked the idea of going to the dance with one of her closest friends, and she could trust him to pick out a nice shirt. From afar, the beetle pattern looked like polka dots, made colorful by the confetti raining down on them.

She followed his glance to Aoide. A first-year was here? Eirene pushed back a flicker of disappointment. She'd thought, or hoped, that the secret party would be fourth-years and up. Fourth-years, with their third and second-year dates... Eirene sighed. She supposed it made sense.

"Shall we check out the cakes and snacks?" She glanced at Akira before addressing the rest of the Ravenclaw rebels. "Who do you think organized all of this? I actually approve."

Could it be a prefect? Eirene spotted Osha and Kelvin and felt reassured. Prefects were here, which meant that they could keep the party under control, and if they all got caught, the prefects would be the first who would have to explain.

Akira had been excited for the party! The fact she got an invitation was one thing, who would want to invite the sugar addicted Ravenclaw to a party with lots of sweets? But it made her realize she could make chocolates for it also! Which she did and had managed to not eat over the day, now carried in a small bag by her side. She didn't have much in the way of nice outfits, but her mother had made sure she had one nice thing to wear if anything formal happened. A blue summer style dress that was more or less the colour of Ravenclaw, and she thought it suited perfectly! Although it was still perhaps a bit too cold in the castle for these outfits but she wanted to impress Tim!

Although she was now sure he could read her mind, just as she noticed the glitter she was asked if it was edible. He must be psychic, how else would he have known she was about to try eating the glitter? In secret as he talked to the grumpy older Ravenclaws, Eirene and Frank, both were older and often very unhappy if she jumped on the couches or messed up books, or atleast seem unhappy. People need to smile more! Is getting older just smiling less? If she would be smiling less in a year then she was dreading growing up.

But while he was talking to them about prank parties, who would do such a thing? She blepped her tongue out and caught some glitter. Her arms wrapped around his tighter and she gave a small nod. "If its not toxic its edible." The true statement of life, and one she is sworn to go by. She wasn't sure what the glitter tasted of though.

The boring talks ended though and Akira perked up immediately at the mention of cakes and snacks. Who wouldn't? Free food was always a bonus at a party, it wasn't one if there wasn't free food, was that they meant by Prank parties?

Originally she was dubious as to whether the invite was for her, could of arrived for anyone really, why would it be for her? But after a good awhile of debating whether she was the intended or not, she figured did it matter? She knew it was happening, she could show up, she wasn't bothered by breaking curfew, she's done it for worse reasons before so atleast this is a somewhat valid reason to break curfew. She's spent entire nights away from her dorm! Admittedly only to be at the ministry but it was nice to believe it was breaking curfew as she never showed up those nights.

The other problem that came for her was what to wear, she'd much rather be in comfy hoodie but she'd stick out so much and wouldn't look great, plus she's had a dress to wear for awhile now, but that was the problem. As it was her only one and has been hers since before anything happened so its showing off her back somewhat, originally bought for one of her aunts wedding reception, not the wedding itself as she wasn't invited only to the party. It was made to fit the 'theme' she demanded but suited other occasions luckily. It was diagonally cut at the back from her lower back at the thinnest point going to her arms, annoyingly for her it was an off shoulder dress with a slight V cut at the front also.

She hated that aunt, she always smelt faintly of wine and she was pretty sure the aunt was one of the ones who hated her now, luckily she saw her once a year at most. Atleast the colour of the dress was a naval blue, which worked for her as it wasn't bright or annoying to her eyes. She managed to match it out with some blue heeled sandals but luckily was a small heel, she struggled with even low heels, she was so glad she wasn't made by the aunt to get higher ones.

She came alone, who would she bring? Its not as if she could ask someone to come, she didn't know who was invited and she wasn't friends with many people, Eirene wouldn't of worked as it was sort of awkward with her anyway, they made a potion together but they weren't exactly friends. Zeta she had gotten over, completely over didn't even feel guilty about it anymore. And other then that she didn't know many people, well she knew Greer but there was no way she would ask her to come.

So many people already seemed to be here, which made her slightly nervous, she had a plan, she avoided people as she entered, they seemed to be had been talking about snacks, she noticed Tim being there, that blonde Slytherin, Eirene was here! Zeta....oh Zeta was here, and with a boy...Lucinda didn't care! Not at all, why should she? But it did make her more resolved with her plan. In a quick motion she retrieved a vial from inbetween her dress and body. And poured it into the first drink bowl she found. Its not like anyone would care much right?

Tim’s insides received a tighter squeeze.
“If it’s not toxic, it’s edible.” Akira pronounced.

The other Ravenclaws were heading to check out the food set out, so he anticipated Akira would be off like a flash. One day all of the sweet eating was going to catch up on her. He’d heard the other Ravenclaw girls discussing this over lunch during the week, comparing how their mothers used enchanted clothing or potions to keep the weight off. Out of curiosity he’d listened in, but it had left him feeling like he’d perhaps learned too much.

“Pace yourself,” Tim suggested gently, “didn’t you want to dance?” He let Akira guide their route while he turned his curiosity to Aoide’s energetic dancing. When doink! one of those cupid arrows hit him on the shoulder too. It was like being hit with tarantallegra with added rhythm. Tim’s limbs took on a mind of their own and he found himself jigging out into the space. “What the -?!” He exclaimed, before spinning on the spot.

The urge to dance was beginning to lessen, Aoide realised, as she began to feel she was regaining control of her arms. Her legs were still going on their own, but she managed to pant enough breath and spot that she had been joined on the dancefloor! An older boy with brown hair was now dancing wildly, spinning on the spot, and as surprised as she had been.

“It’s ok!” Aoide squeaked, “It seems to - - seems to wear- - wear off, phewph!” She tried a tentative step forward and shook off her legs like the spell had been a pair of spangly disco trousers all along. She darted past the taller boy and headed gratefully to the table of refreshments with a mighty thirst.

She happened upon the drink bowl just after Lucinda had emptied her vial into it, though Aoide was none the wiser of the perils of open drink bowls. Instead, she filled up a cup without hesitation and began to gulp it down like she’d found an oasis in a desert.

Lots of the students there seemed really old and tall. Aoide felt out of her depth and a bit out of place suddenly. Everyone had arrived as she’d been wildly dancing and the embarrassment hit her, and then… just like that, seemed to vanish.

“Gosh!” She exclaimed, “That’s some lovely drink,” she raised her voice, “you should all definitely try some! It’s so lovely to see you all here. I’m so glad you got the invitations!”

Oops! She clapped a hand over her mouth in alarm at blurting it out, and then shrugged, smiled broadly and slipped it away from her face. Happy accident!

"Who wants a hug?"

Kelvin reached out and carefully picked out his own miniature pie.  Ignoring the one that Zeta was holding up in front of him. "Eat the pie, don't play with it," he said sternly as he popped his into his mouth.  Struggling to chew for a moment before he could really enjoy the cherry taste exploding on his tongue.  He shook his head when Zeta said someone should spike the punch.  He'd done enough stupid things after drinking spiked punch, he didn't need to repeat the experience.  He struggled to swallow the dessert so he could speak.

"Do whatever you want when I'm not looking." And after I've gotten mine.  Kelvin grabbed a cup, tapped it with his wand so it got taller, and then filled it up with what he hoped was still un-spiked punch.  "Do your worst!" He pointedly turned away from the punch and sipped his drink.

He laughed into his drink, splashing it over his hand and onto the floor, when he saw Tim uncontrollably, at least he hoped it was uncontrollably, dancing.  Apparently Osha wanted to make sure people danced.