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One of the Great Hall’s walls has been charmed away, to open to a terrace outside. A fountain is visible, spouting bubbling water, and illuminated by many, many fairy lights. A white gazebo sits on the terrace to provide seating. Even out here, the music is audible, and is a nice, quieter place to dance and be able to talk, or have a private moment away from everyone else.

The murmur of babbling water called him and he obeyed eagerly. He could still see it, the green-blue veins of her wrist burned against his eyes; they were still there, pulsing, tempting even when he shut his eyelids.

Closed eyes, hi batted away the nearest fairy threatening to destroy the absolute darkness he desired. This was going to be a long night. Pity. It wasn't like he could decide to go for a sudden run.

A TERRACE!

Why hadn't she noticed it before? Had it even been there before? Hmm. She thought not. Letting go of her dress, the small sixteen year old let her blue-gray eyes dart around the place, althought they kept returning to the fairy lights and the fountain almost instantly.

Madiison decided this was to be her favourite place for the night. It seemed so romantic, Di could already picture the story in her head. The girl would sit there, gaze at the stars (Di glared at the few clouds visible in the sky), and then the boy will come along, maybe tease her a little, and then KABOOM! They are in love. Or were they already in love?

In her excitement, Madiison almost overlooked that she was not alone here. Strange. She thought she would have been. As she registered who stood in front of her, Madiison gulped. It was another one of those night class students.

And she ogled at him. At least internally, although she was sure her face would betray her. WHY!? Why were they so beautiful? It was unfair! Although Madiison knew she was cute and pretty, these people were something entirely different. They had pale and flawless skin. She wanted to touch it.

At the same time, she was a little scared. Scared of these people. WHO WERE THEY?! Just a little.

"Erm ... hello?" She moved a little closer, but still kept her distance, fulfilling the promise she had made to herself that she would talk to the next Night Class student she saw.

OOC: Sorry! Forgot to check up in here.

Playing a rather happy piece of music in his mind, Keitaro managed to ease himself into a sense of calmness. His ears though managed to pick delicate footsteps coming ever closer to him. By the time the girl had reached him he was busy inspecting his nails; nails he had almost bitten right off his own frozen fingers. "Please forgive my rudeness," he began not looking up. "But I'm not feeling very sociable at the moment."

Which, totally defeated the purpose of even coming to a ball he knew. Except, he didn't expect it to be so troublesome. He had been working hard in his solitude to control himself; however, things rarely worked out how one would expect them to; or deserved them to.

Life was just utterly unfair.

And lonely despite being surrounded by loud, pulsing, smelly humans.

If this had been just another, normal looking, Hogwarts boy, Madiison would probably have already started to tune out and just stare at the fairy lights. Or maybe at the moon. Or she would have started picturing her little love story and then perhaps have shown it to Merlin (which, by the way, where was he and why wasn't he listening to her now?). Not that Merlin ever really answered back.

But he was not just another normal looking human. He wasn't even a pretty looking human or a cute one. He was gorgeous. The kind who didn't need to throw in puppy eyes to make his brother or sister to melt and give in, like Di had to. And she did listen to what he said.

Of course it wasn't because he scared her. Nu-huh. It was NOT because she was scared. She wasn't scared, was she? No she wasn't. Not even a little.

And the fact that she was still standing there proved it.

"T-t-thats okay," Di stammered, not able to look away. LOOK AT HIS SKIN GLOWING IN THE FAIRY LIGHTS! How could anyone look away? "I was just exploring the castle, you know." The Caslte? Oops. She meant the Great Hall. "Never seen this terrace before. Beautiful, what they did to the hall, isn't it?" Madiison had a habit of rambling when she was nervous. Something she hadn't realised because Di hardly ever got a chance to get nervous, "Of course you don't want to hear me talk and," SHUT UP NOW! "... I'll just ... go away?" She finished, finally.

Wonder why the last statement came out sounding like a question.

Ellie extracted herself from the rather loud and somewhat cloying crowd of humans, needing a few moments of quiet. She had underestimated some of her control and while the tablets helped, it wasn't quite as easy as she had anticipated. Even after all these years, sometimes...she just had to take a step back and breathe. Sort of. She shook some of her long hair back, smiling a little at the sensation of it moving over her skin. It tickled a little.

She walked over to the far edge of the terrace, looking out into the darkness, simply...thinking about nothign at all in particular.

Peter was going to try to find a place to sit, but everyone seemed to be enjoying them selves a little too much for his own taste. He thought that this might be a nice escape from all the noise. He around a little bit as he took in the site of it all. It looked rather nice. He made his way a little further as he found a girl standing around too. Night class student as well. He moved to stand beside her but some what behind her."Excuse me. Mind if join you. Its nice outside at the moment. Until it gets invaded." he said as he made a comment about how he was sure their would be more and more people out here. It seemed like a popular place to sit down and exert some pda."I'm Peter." he told her as he gave her a smile.

Eleanor turned her head to the side at the sound of a boy speaking to her, looking at him over her shoulder. She gazed at him a moment, her blue eyes curious and then gave him a slight smile. " You most certainly can." she said, " And I agree with you. Being in the night air is most refreshing." She spoke softly but with assurance. " My name is Eleanor, it's a pleasure to meet you Peter." She smiled a bit more before she looked out over the terrace again. " Sometimes I can barely remember what this is all supposed to be like. But it is rather fun, dressing so nicely again." She said, gesturing to her formal gown.

"Thank you." He spoke to her as he gave her a small nod at letting him share the space with her. He looked around as she spoke about the night air. it was nice. Especially when it was cold. " Pleasure to meet you Eleanor." he would of asked more questions, but it was unwise seeing as they were in human company. He smiled as she nodded at her statement. He had long gone forgotten about being a human." It is true. You would think it would be special enough for you to remember it, but I dont really recall much about it." he told her honestly. He noticed her outfit as it was nice." It's nice to be able to wear something nice without having people draw attention to you." He had it done to him several times before." I just dont recall masks being part of the deal. At least for me." In his time period at least.

Having carefully made her way through the loud room, after she had abandoned the entrance hall, Genevieve came out onto the terrace. Letting her skirt fall again, since she had instinctively picked it up as she moved, even though it wasn't anywhere near as long as the skirts of the dresses she had worn when she was human, she leaned against the outside of the wall delicately, the moonlight picking up even more shimmers off the silver of her dress and mask, to add to the faint shimmering of her skin.

This was starting to be an odd night, even ignoring how she seemed to be the one Hight student nobody noticed. The music was loud, she was having difficulty sticking with her self-made decision to not attack humans, and now she had fled out here. She could still hear the music, however, and finally stood up again, her silvery eyes scanning the terrace. Several other members of the Night Class, including Peter the weird, as Charlotte had called him. And one lone human, it seemed. Not as strange as she would have thought, though, since there was a slight coolness to the air that she barely noticed, but had to think the humans would be affected by. Especially in their formalwear.

The fairy lights bothered him and he turned his body slightly, trying to avoid having their luminescence fall on his face. However, the fairy lights weren't the only thing that was bothering him; for example, the human's endless chatter and the way he could basically smell the fear off her.

Going up his nostrils and infecting his entire being where it provoked an unsolicited shiver. Reminding himself to breathe--like a human, he attempted a smile, rather painfully. "I suppose," he replied not quite understanding what she meant by beautiful. "It's ingenious, I'll give you that much."

Their ideas of beauty must differ greatly. Fairy lights and clever magic? Not so much his cup of herbal tea.

EEP! She was surrounded by these 'Night Class' students. They were closing in on her like beautiful, God-like creatures about to ... STOP RIGHT THERE, Madiison. If she would have let her train of thought continue, Di would have probably done something humiliating like ... ogled at all of them. Or run away. Depending on how that statement would have ended.

"Un-huh," was all Di could say in response as she watched his skin. SHE WANTED SKIN LIKE THAT! Although her's was not bad. In fact, before she met these night class students, she would have called it perfect. It bloody well, should have been perfect, considering the time and energy Madiison wasted taking care of it. "... ingenious." She nodded in agreement.

Why, Merlin? WHY?! Why were all these night class students so beautiful. Was that what Kittley was trying to start here? A house full of absolutely, breathtakingly, gorgeous people? DISCRIMINATION!

... Di did notice he didn't tell her to leave, although she probably should before she humiliates herself.

She was still nearby and Keitaro Ito, admitting defeat for the time being heaved a sigh and decidedly stopped trying to avoid the fairy lights. Whatever damage had been done was done--it wasn't like he could stop being what he was.

No matter how much he wished for it. Even as she stammered and stood there, Kei could feel her probing eyes on him. Scanning him perhaps even obsessively as most humans did to his kind. It made him....not sick....well, perhaps a little. "Tell me something," he murmured staring at the darkness. "What beauty do you find in perfection?"

This post has been edited by Keitaro Ito on Jul 16 2009, 08:37 AM

Madiison's eyes perked up, but then she blinked at him stupidly. Say WHAAAT?!

Replaying his words in her head - he had such a beautiful voice - Madiison pursed her lips and blinked once more. What beauty did she find in perfection? What kind of a question was that? Still, the Ravenclaw thought about it, trying to ignore his perfect ... well, everything ... which kept popping up in her head every time she tried to think. It was hard not too have it pop up, since he was standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER!

Perfection? She was not a perfectionist. Di liked to think she wasn't. Was she? Perfection could be annoying, actually. Like her aunt in Switzerland, who had the perfect family and the perfect kids who got perfect grades and behaved perfectly. And then Madiison's mother told her and Adrian why they couldn't be more like their cousins. EWW! As much as she loved her extended family, her cousins were ... weird. And NOT in a good way. Amanda liked to use the flame freezing charm and then burn herself. SEE! She should have been born when they were hunting witches. She could have been Wendalin the Weird's partner in crime.

Or like Monica in Friends.

Actually, no. That was funny.

Gently biting the inside of her her lower lip, Madiison pouted, trying to think of what was beautiful in perfection. But there was beauty! There had to be!

"Things aren't always perfect." Di said, rolling her blue-gray eyes and becoming more like her normal self, distracted now that she was thinking about something other than how beautiful this person in front of her was. "In fact, most of the time, they never are. Take this ball for instance. One would have thought I would have come in with a date. Massive disappointment." Vain much, Madiison? "Or did you notice they are playing classical music in there? And the balloons?"

They. Were. Weird.

Now that she was started, Di continued on, "And this is supposed to be a masquerade!" She whined. "But people are introducing each other by their names! Where is the fun in THAT?!" Di made a face. "But I bet you the people who planned this thought this was going to be perfect. They wanted it to be perfect so people could remember it ... So there is beauty in perfection ... Because it is so rare and not permanent."

"Take you for instance," She said, not thinking about what was coming out of her mouth anymore, "If you don't mind me saying, you look perfect in every way." OGLE! Even perfect seemed tame next to him. Or next to any of those night class students. EEP! "But there has to be something wrong with you, one way or the other. Or, your perfection is not permanent. Because .... because ... err ... It's life, right?" Come on! Everybody knew that! "Still, wouldn't mind looking perfect."

She thought about what she had just said, or rambled, really, and grimaced. "I didn't really answer the question, did I?"

Now she started going over her reply, barely even noticing the beautiful person in front of her. WHAAAAAT?! She had rambled and whined about perfection and hadn't even answered the question. Not really.

AND SHE TOLD HIM THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH HIM!?!!!

There had to be something wrong with her, to be honest. Maybe Adrian was right. She did need therapy. She had just called this gorgeous boy imperfect in some way, although she couldn't see how he was imperfect. Or how he could be.

FAIL, MADIISON! FAAAIIIIIL!!1!

She blinked up at him, awaiting the verdict.

But then fear drained into her. What if he got angry? HUH?! How would Madiison protect her little cute self then? He was surrounded by all those other perfect people he probably hung out with AND SHE WAS ALONE! And vulnerable. And small. And redheaded. And short. And weak. And defenseless. And ... and they were a little scary. Beautiful, but just a little scary.

Victrola! Where are you!?!

Ellie listened to Peter as he spoke, now turning to look at him when he indicated that he hadn't remembered masks being a part of these things. " Oh, I remember masks. Those factored in greatly during...the festivities I would attend sometimes. People like to play games that way, to hide from one another even if they know exactly whom it is under the mask." She said, her confusion at the concept showing for a moment. She spoke to him quietly, knowing their conversation could be heard and therefore give them away. So she kept her voice quiet. " I've learned that I can dress nicely but also avoid being stared at," She smiled at him again, lightly making a sort of joke between them. " I admit it is harder for men to do so, though" She said, making an allowance with a little nod. She turned to face him more and she looked him over. " Do you like it here?" She asked then, watching him as she waited for her answer.