Freya arrived breathless, but not from haste.  Instead, she was nervous and high spots of color on her cheeks betrayed her lack of confidence.  Of course, on Freya's pale complexion, the blush just made her look less like a corpse.  She hadn't bothered to master the transfiguration spell she'd planned to use to darken her eyebrows and lashes, but she had learned one to lengthen her hair temporarily.  Her gran had taught her, and she had almost decided to start growing out her short bob, she liked it so much in the mirror.  It softened her otherwise angular face and the gentle wave looked positively... feminine.

She hesitated at the tentflap, feeling nauseous, then squared her shoulders and stepped inside, handing her fur wrap to the attendant and tugging at the hem of her dress even though it really wasn't short and didn't quite show her knobby knees off.  In fact, it was downright demure... but in a shockingly ethereal manner that both appealed and surprised her.  Gran had outdone herself, despite being older than spit.

The outfit itself was a reward for bringing up her grades.  Freya's marks at the beginning of the year had been so abysmal, she'd been required by both her mother and grandmother to leave off any clubs or extracurriculars.  In fact, she hadn't socialized at all, other than the night at Spellpunk-- not that Freya socialized much, anyway, but she typically noticed everything going on around her, since she watched more than she talked.  Taking in the assemblage, now, she recognized a few faces-- Fauna, inexplicably sharing her date with another girl; Professor Levartian, since she was Head of Freya's own house, Sasha...

...
...

Freya realized she was staring and blushed again, looking away.  She really had been studying too hard.  The last she'd seen him, Sasha had been at the receiving end of "flirting lessons" and she'd thought...  Well, she'd thought for certain it was a girl he wanted to flirt with.  But from the look on his date's face, he'd learned his lessons properly.  They looked nice together.  Just... unexpected.

She bit her lip, fiddling with the pearls at her neckline.  She felt like ducking her head and clumping to the back of the tent.  Certain, she could still clump-- despite the beautiful, delicate silver slippers Gran had given her to go with the outfit, Freya had to be Freya, and still wore her docs.  Rather than stumping around in them, however, she made the conscious attempt to walk delicately, despite their awkwardness.  The dress deserved that.  So she did her best to float ethereally past the tight group of friends, accepted her charm from the cupids (love elixir, sure, she thought sarcastically, thinking she'd rather have "wishful thinking" tonight) and draped it over her head before moseying up to the snack table and snagging a heart-shaped cake dripping with fuchsia icing.   Or rather, she floated ethereally over to entrap a delicacy from the bar (yes, right, sarcasm, she thought-- even my inner voice doesn't believe that).

There were teachers carrying on a low conversation in the corner.  She looked around for another corner, with shadows, preferably.  With relief, she found one, and attempted another ethereal glide, tripped over her docs and barely missed plastering fuchsia icing onto her gauzy bosom.  Maybe Gran was right.  Maybe Docs really aren't the best footwear.  It seemed almost sacrilegious to think so, though.

She started to stick a finger into her mouth to lick off the icing, remembered too late she was wearing lace gloves, and made a face of frustration.

At least it distracted her from the fact that she'd mustered the nerve to attend a ball commemorating love... dateless.

"Part of my job tonight is to...escort Miss St. James," Tapendra replied, waving a hand at one of the elaborate booths that had been set up within the larger tent. Ignan's eyes followed his gesturing and he raised an eyebrow.
"She insisted I look the part," he glanced down at his attire and shrugged. "Looks a bit silly, doesn't it? I'm not sure I want to know what the price tag looked like."

Ignan couldn't think of a suitable response to that, and was conveniently saved by Myrni's approach.
"Hello, gents. Is this where all the teachers are gathering? Destined to be wallflowers for the evening? You both look quite dapper this evening." She smiled at them both politely.

Ignan and Myrni's paths crossed less than perhaps they should do on a daily basis. Arithmancy was something he had a peripheral knowledge of, and there wasn't a huge cross-over between their subjects. However, she was also Head of Gryffindor, which occasionally meant the notification of which of her charges Ignan was putting in detention after each lesson, much to her dismay. Then there was always wizard's chess, which they'd promised each other they'd play a game of - but never got round to it yet. He wasn't overly surprised, they were both fairly wrapped up with their teaching and other affairs (Ignan suspected romantic ones were more prevalent for Myrni, given her striking looks and younger age by a few decades to him) and he also had a sneaking suspicion she'd beat him as he'd not played in several decades, though was a keen player as a child and teenager.

"Thank you, you look captivating yourself." Eurgh, not the best of compliments, he told himself as he heard the phrase trip out of his mouth semi-automatically. How did one compliment a colleague of the opposite gender, who was clearly very attractive, without sounding either like a dirty old man or severely mediocre?

He needn't have worried, the Head of Gryffindor was soon adjusting the lapel of the aforementioned jacket Tappy was wearing.
"I don't think it looks silly at all." She told them, and Ignan's head twitched irritably,
"I didn't imply it did!" He replied swiftly with a frown, his firewhiskey in his fist, and then paused, looking back at them both and recognising potential flirtation, drooped his shoulders again and sighed, folding his arms.

"Aren't there enough raging hormones in this room without you two…" He muttered, still frowning.

Myrni got a warm smile from Tappy, too - though he said nothing beyond a simple, "Good evening, professor," at first, not exactly sure what to say. She was indeed a beautiful lady, and dressed well; but with his sudden hyper awareness of...well, everything he said around women, he didn't know what to say.

Her reaching up and starting to adjust his clothing did nothing to help his speechlessness; instead he blushed and stood stock-still.   And, as if Tappy's face wasn't red enough already - Ignan's comment didn't help him in the slightest.

"Aren't there enough raging hormones in this room without you two…"

Part of him was glad his senior collegiate had trailed off in hs grumbling. The other half of Tappy, unfortunately, currently had control of his mouth.

"W-what? No! Not like - er..." He clamped his jaw shut on his own words and looked nonplussed for a long moment before he murmured a weak apology to Myrni, taking a half step backwards in a way he hoped she didn't take offense at.

"Um, yes. Ah." He cleared his throat. "And, um, how are you this evening, Professor?" he asked her finally, hoping to steer the conversation away from...well. Away from flirting.

Good god, if he was this bad now, he was going to wind up hiding under the table reading a book at Dolly's booth.

Myrni immediately drew her hand away from Tappy's lapel upon both seeing his expression as well as Professor Storms. She realized her faux pas right away and cursed herself under her breath for not respecting the personal space of others or being more guarded with her own boundaries. It was clearly one of her flaws.

She could feel her fair cheeks begin to burn at Storm's comment and Tappy's flustered attempt at responding. Hoping to help alleviate his embarrassment -- since she was the cause for much of it -- Myrni hastily told both men, "I am doing well. Thank you." Then, in an effort to steer the conversation away from anything aesthetics related, she turned to Defenses instructor and inquired, "Professor Storm, I am actually very glad to have caught a moment in your company. I know we've spoken previously about Wizard's Chess and there is actually quite the following among some of our students here. Enough where we might be able to have a club or tournament."

She paused and shot a quick look at Trishna to see if he had time to collect himself yet. Then she continued and boldly put Storm on the spot. "Perhaps you'd like to work with me on it? I know you're already involved with the dueling club, but if it's something you enjoy, I'd love to have your help. Or, we could simply plan on playing a few friendly games in the staff room like we had already considered..."

Oh dear, he'd made both his colleagues extremely uncomfortable suddenly.

Good.

They could share in his miserable evening.

"Professor Storm, I am actually very glad to have caught a moment in your company. I know we've spoken previously about Wizard's Chess and there is actually quite the following among some of our students here. Enough where we might be able to have a club or tournament."

Ignan looked back round at them both, raising an eyebrow at the Arithmancy Professor.
"Perhaps you'd like to work with me on it? I know you're already involved with the dueling club, but if it's something you enjoy, I'd love to have your help. Or, we could simply plan on playing a few friendly games in the staff room like we had already considered..."

"My time has been shorter of late." He confirmed, or stated, a little of both. "If its not aurors asking questions about dead students, its the Ministry meddling in my lessons." His tone was anything but inviting or encouraging in response. His gaze turned away and he contemplated a beat, focus of his pale eyes out amongst the students excitedly grouping and enjoying the evening.
"Though, playing chess improves strategy, forward thinking, two things Hogwarts students lack." He looked back to Myrni, and at Trishna beyond. "Some of our colleagues would benefit from it too." Ignan added, not directly insinuating Tapendra, but rather more trying to distract his attention from being embarrassed about his attire and Ignan's earlier disgruntled comment about flirtation.

"How many do you believe would be interested to play?" He asked Myrni, still a little skeptical, but at least sounding interested now.