I Will Remember You.:Grad. Ball {Open to All!}

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It had been an all-consuming sort of day. Maybe she was feeling the same way that Arnie, or anyone really, had felt during her graduation the previous year, but for Dorcas it was overwhelming. How had the time gone so quickly? It felt like yesterday that she had been at the Graduation Ball with Arnie in her arms, holding her tight...She quickly dashed those thoughts. While it would have been nice to have it all work out, she would need to come to terms with the fact that they were no longer together. Until today she thought that she had, but seeing him all dressed up, smiling with his friends, accepting his diploma, just generally happy with the way his life had turned out, well, it had thrown her for a loop.

In any case, you’re here as his friend, and you have Ethan at home.

Things in her current relationship were rocky, what with Ethan still technically dating Maggie MacMillan. She knew that he and she were dating just to appease his father, but as the woman he came home to every night, it was more than a little disconcerting to know that the majority of his friends and family knew nothing about them being together once more. They had fought about it, and now had barely spoken for a week while they sorted out their feelings about it all. She still didn’t know where she stood about it. Doe knew that she couldn’t go back to him if he decided to keep up appearances with MacMillan, but there were real feelings there, ones based on years of history together.

A breeze swept over her as she thought, and she shivered before looking up at the clocktower. Arnie should have arrived five minutes ago, and she was sure that she had heard him correctly when he said to meet outside the door.

Maybe he’s just found a girl to spend his time with for the night...

Oh, how she hoped she hadn’t been brought here to help him establish another relationship. They had formed a friendship since breaking up on New Year’s Day, but she felt in no way ready for that. She walked inside slowly, long white dress billowing in the breeze, and searched the hall for him. Dorcas found him quickly, he was just across the way with all of his mates - Easy for him to forget about you really - and as if reading her mind, he turned and locked eyes with her. She put a smirk on her face as she went over, not wanting to let him in on whatever she was feeling, but the moment he kissed her cheek, her stomach dropped, turning into a puddle of mush on its way.

Pull yourself together.

"Thanks! You clean up well yourself." She smiled up at him calmly even while her insides were squirming like they had the night she met him for the first time. She didn't want to put a damper on his evening and thankfully she’d had a year’s worth of training in the Order to hopefully keep him from reading her. Arnie went on, and she started to look over at his friends, her eyes widening as she saw Benji so wrapped up in who she assumed was his date - is that Carolyn? - when she felt her ex-boyfriend slide his hand around her waist.

What are you playing at?

Yes, it felt nice, yes, she felt comfortable, but wasn’t there a line the two of them shouldn’t be crossing? She was sure that they knew what was what, but this sort of an action could give people the wrong idea, couldn’t it? "Really? I couldn't tell." She smirked, "Ethan is her brother's best friend, so I've met her before." Doe stepped out of Arnie’s grasp to give Benji a quick hug hello and she missed her ex immediately. That had to be a new level of pathetic. "Congrats to you for your Ministry prize in Herbology. Had a feeling you would be getting that one." She wasn’t entirely certain where she and him stood when it came to Arnie, but they had started forming their own relationship surrounding talk about the Order, and Dorcas hoped that on a business level at the very least, he would want to speak with her. Turning to Carolyn as they all started in, Dorcas smiled, "Arnie told me you're going into law. My best friend works at Ministry and I think I can get him to pull some strings if you're interested."

[Deleted]

“Merlin's sweaty balls!” Sylvia exclaimed, hurling her left shoe clean across the dorm. Belatedly, she blushed at her language, even though no one was left in the room to be shocked by it. She had told her long term roommates -soon to, sadly, be ex-roommates- to go on to the Ball without her, all she had left to do was spell her plain old pink heels into something more fancy. Simple enough. She had done it before. And it was working now just fine too, only, she couldn't get the pair of shoes to match exactly. It was beyond frustrating and it was making her late.

Sylvia huffed, going over to pick up the remaining piece of her ensemble for the evening. She held the perfectly plain heel to her chest and closed her eyes. The former Ravenclaw knew the problem with her magic was her anxiety, as she had been filled with it all day, and it was at a fever pitch now. They were all leaving tomorrow, she would never see some people again, and some, not as often as she would like. And she was about to embark on the muggle world, fully. Sylvia had never before experienced the total immersion in all things non-magical as she was about to. She would be going to Cambridge in the spring, an exciting, daunting thing to think about. And then there was she and Tommy. Would their relationship survive the real world?

The girl remembered perfectly what it was like to be without her boyfriend. Of course, at the time, she hadn't known her true feelings for him, unlike now. She knew it was going to be much harder this time around. He would be out, doing Quidditch, and she supported that...but who knew when their schedules would line up, when they would be able to see each other. Would she just let them fall apart, like last time? She couldn't bare the thought, last time had hurt her Thomas so much. No! That would not be them, again. Sylvia was determined to make it work, come what may, she and Tommy would survive it. Together.

With a deep breath, Sylvie tried the spell again on her shoe. This time the flower adhered without a hitch, at just the right angle, and the girl grinned so broadly her face hurt. She slipped the thing on and made her way out of the dorm before she could stress herself about something else, eager to see her friends and get their opinion on her final appearance. Sylvia's chest contracted painfully at the thought of them. She was going to miss them so much!

All of them, she was going to miss them all so much. And there they all were, assembled together in a group in the Great Hall as if for her pleasure alone, all her most favorite people in the world. Sylvie stood outside the hall for a moment watching them, trying to remember everything about them. Wanting to take a piece of each of them with her wherever she went. Benji looked up at her so quickly it startled her a little -he must have felt her gaze on he and Arnie and Dorcas- but he was grinning and she smiled back, making her way over to the tight cluster of her friends... and her boyfriend, whom she hadn't seen from the doorway. She had half expected him to be tied up with Head Boy duties tonight, she was infinitely glad he wasn't currently.

Sylvia's heart picked up a pace and her body suffused with the most deliciously familiar heat as she met the eyes of the boy she loved. She smiled coyly, coming up to give him a proper kiss before saying anything at all. Her mother would have been appalled. “Hello there.” she said to him quietly when she pulled away, smoothing her hand over his heart, only just to feel it beating. “You look so handsome, but you know that I suppose. In fact everyone looks so great!” Sylvia turned to the group at large, taking them all in turn, they were all stunning and she would always remember them this way.

[Deleted]

His future was looking bright.

Today marked the end of a period in his life where he had let far too many things get under his skin, and Tommy was happy to leave all the drama behind him. New doors were opening for him everywhere he looked - recently he'd accepted a Chaser position with Puddlemere United for the upcoming season, and for some reason, Sylvia had agreed to move in with him. It would be hard to move away from all of his family in Scotland, but that was what trains were for, right? Tom didn't think it would be any different than when he was away from them at school, and when his amazing girlfriend was the alternative it was hard to see a downside. 

But tonight wasn't about those things. It was about spending time with his mates from the past seven years, at least it would be when he finished the last of his Head boy duties. He'd been in the Great Hall helping with the final decorations for an hour or so now, running around in his suit like his life depended on it. Tommy wanted the night to be one they all looked back on as being perfect, so in his eyes, it was worth missing the hustle and bustle going on in the entrance hall. Fellow graduates started to make their way inside and he and his co-head took that as their cue to start heading out to find their dates. When he did lay eyes on his girl, his breath left him. She was always beautiful, but in that dress, Tommy was having trouble concentrating. He walked to meet her with purpose, "Syl..." he whispered before she shut him up with a kiss. 

There had been a time when he was worried about whether they would make it or not. When he'd calculated the odds of them getting through a summer together without breaking it off once and for all. Their past had made him think it wasn't possible but with this kiss, and the way he felt about her, he couldn't see anything but them being together for the rest of their lives. Tommy gave her a moment to greet their friends before pulling her back into a quick kiss, "Just wait until you see the Great Hall, beautiful. Do you want to help me find our seats?"

[Roderick Bones]

It was strange to walk back into these halls after four years of being away from them. So much had changed in his life since that time. He’d never expected to fall so in love with someone in such a short period of time, but Roderick couldn’t imagine life without Ava. Things had moved fast between them, and he wasn’t sure what their families would think of when they announced the news to them. Just knowing that his future wife was pregnant with their child, it was the best news that he could have ever asked for. He knew how wonderful children were from watching his brother grow as a person from them, and he’d always wanted that for himself. Edgar had been pleased to hear about Ava, and Roderick knew he would get to introduce the two of them soon at annual Bones birthday.

He gave Minerva and Pomona a nod, and his old Head of House greeted him with a smile, directing him inside. Lunch today with Ava’s family had gone well, in his opinion. It had been a tad awkward meeting her family, but as far as Roderick knew the pregnancy was still a secret to everyone except the two of them. Adjusting his tie as he stood in the entrance hall, Roderick kept his eye out for his fiancee as he watched other students greet each other and head into the great hall. He recognized some of the Hufflepuffs, glad to see that Hestia and Doc appeared to be together. Even though he was only four years older than most of them, he suddenly felt so old standing around them. So much life had happened in the years outside these walls, and he wondered if any of them were truly prepared for how terrible the world they lived in was.

Any thoughts about that were gone from his mind as he spotted Ava, and he moved across the hall towards her, pulling her into his arms. “I know I say this a lot, and I hope you aren’t tired of hearing it, but you are absolutely stunning,” he said, giving her a kiss. “I’ve kept our little secret, although Phoebe and I had an hour long conversation about you the other day, she’s so excited to get to meet you.”