Despite the recent solemnity of the mood, he couldn't help but smile a little as he watched Arya out of the corner of his eyes. She really did seem to be keen on those grapes. "I can tell." At least it was one good thing about the party.

Just as he was about to ask her if he could have one, he caught Tate eying them. A bit of embarrassment had him along with the brief confusion of what the eyeball was for, but only for a moment. The next had him on his feet and all the concern that he had harbored since seeing Tate's sunny mood expressed in its full honesty. "Headmaster..."

His comment had her taking a pause in her snacking, giving him a side long glance as a small smile slowly began to form on her lips. She didn't know if he was being funny or not, but at least he was smiling. It was always nice to see him smiling.

Her gaze followed his she finished off the grape in her, only to see Tate giving them that LOOK. The one she was sure was gonna get stuck on his face if he kept giving them for... she wasn't sure why he was giving it to them, but it did have her making sure she wasn't doing anything worthy of the look.

When Sabel hopped up and moving over to the headmaster, she'd decided that now would be a good time to get more grapes. Plate in hand, she rose to her feet, using her free hand to drape his jacket over her shoulders as she moved over to the Headmaster and Sabel.

"Dakest. Lovegoods," Tate nodded to them both and piled a plethora of those little chicken wings onto his plate. They weren't nearly hot anymore, but they were dripping in some sort of dark sauce and smelled heavenly. He pocketed a bottle of butterbeer before moving on to some sort of nutty salad thing. What was...

He'd pass.

"I'm hoping to leave soon. Don't wander too far."

Sabel couldn't help but stare a little at Tate's choice in food. Honestly, all the sauce dripping from the wings made his stomach turn. He much preferred Arya's collection of fruit. That was, if he was inclined to eat anything at all.

He spared a glance over to the Hufflepuff as she joined at his side before returning his eyes quizzically to the Headmaster. "I reckon we would have been gone as soon as we got here if we had been allowed." Tate had after all been wearing a rather sour look all morning, towards everything having to do with the party. It was fairly clear the man had no desire to be here, as seemed to be the attitude for most of the students as well.

"Why aren't we allowed, to leave, now? Is there more singing to be done?" Even though the question could have been presented with humor and sarcasm, it came out as a grim possibility of reality.

"Hey, Headmaster." She stared at his plate. She'd stick to her grapes, though a drink didn't seem to bad. The young teen retrieved a bottle of some sort of juice and placed it in Sabel's jacket pocket. Her focus remained on the two beside her even though she'd moved to adding more grapes to her plate.

A bit a relief was found at his words, and she nodded her head. "We won't wander far." But they might wander, maybe. A slight frown crossed her expression at Sabel's question, and she found herself mumbling under her breath while she picked the grapes. "I'm not singing."

"Certain things a man has to put up with for the greater good," Tate grunted, licking his thumb clean of the sauce with a pensive expression darkening his expression. "But as soon as it's kosher, we'll jump the first flying car back to Hogwarts. Flying car, flying boat, flying trundle bed. We'll get back to the school some way or another."

He glanced toward the shops lining Diagon Alley specutively. Perhaps they could hop into a Floo and emerge in his office. "Maybe wander back toward the student area if you're bent on wandering."

Sabel's eyebrows jumped a little on his forehead as he felt Arya add yet another item to his pocket. He couldn't help the small smile that touched his lips at the sight of the juice bottle sticking out of his pocket, a near mirror image to Tate's butterbeer. He cast a soft gaze at Arya in acknowledgement of her lack of desire to sing; a sentiment all the students seemed to share.

And then his frown was back to Tate, the eyebrow pulled back down in a furrow instead. "Certain things...like mockery. Insult. And public degradation?" Borr had left none of those out when dealing with Tate, and he wasn't exactly sure what 'good' the man was speaking of that could warrant tolerance of such actions. All he could see was a party for a man who already sat too high on his throne.

A flying trundle bed would be fun though, except for the flying part... Cue deeper frown.

A flying boat... kind of like in Peter Pan. Hmm. Arya thought on that for a moment, eyes lazily scanning the table for something else she might want to snack on. She decided not to think much on when it would be kosher for them to leave at this party. If it could even be called that anymore.

Brown eyes flicked towards the student table, and she considered that for a moment. "Maybe." Maybe she'd just stay in that vicinity, so not to get left behind when the small window appeared for them to depart. Sabel was prodding the Headmaster and she gave him a gentle nudge in hopes that he would... ease up a bit. She didn't want him to stop though, curious to the man's response.

"If the alternative was those things for the lot of you, then I consider it a worthy sacrifice. I brought you here, so it was my responsibility to ensure that no one regretted my actions." Not that he didn't regret them enough for everyone.

His dark eyes cut to the little girl standing at Dakest's side, and Tate frowned thoughtfully at her. She had the same bad habit of arguing with her superiors without any of the endearing chivalrous muddle that made it easy to forgive. "Not exactly a suggestion. You will stick close so we can make our exit."

A silvery wild boar suddenly burst into the room and ran over to the side of Gaellen Tate. It started snorting and nudged Tate's leg before speaking.

"Sorry to spoil the fun, but you're needed immediately in your office and, ahem, bring an obliviator with you," said the wild boar in a voice that sounded just like Maximus Vindictus.

Right now, all Derrick could do was smile, in his all perfect way. Of course his family had always been wealthy enough to make sure he had grown up looking his best, and stayed that way even when he was grown. "Yes, to Minister Carlton." Derrick confirmed. Now, his smile faded a bit when Millie had told him that she in fact did not work at the ministry. That was a bummer... However he placed the smile gently back on his face as she continued. "Oh? Right here then.." He motioned the street where they were standing in. "You guys must've closed early to be here then.. I'm glad you did." Derrick would find some excuse to wander into that store at some point in time.

Sabel's frown went between Arya and Tate, especially at their short exchange. Perhaps he should just attribute the tension to the current situation and how much they all wanted to be out of it. Still, with one hand he reached out and took Arya's in his, an indication of support as he glanced up at Tate, giving him a solemn and honest nod. "We will."

Still, he wasn't convinced completely in Tate's words. He appreciated it, that was for certain; the care the man had for his own, but at the same time, was there a point of going too far? Probably not. Not for Tate. "We'd regret it if it was detrimental to you, in any way." Which included the verbal abuse. Many of them already seemed to regret it, a lot. So ignore the future tense, Tate.

Much attention and distraction was given to the sudden appearance of a patronus that seemed resolute to grab Tate's attention. And from its words, it was needed. Words that were much like..."Professor Vindictus?"

Cue dumb stare and gaping mouth as if he had never seen a patronus before. It took him a moment to clamp his mouth shut and look up at Tate. Perhaps they were leaving quicker than expected. "Daphne Hopton, she's a Junior Oblivator, Sir." His hand pointed in the direction of his friend, shaking a little bit. Did he actually just condone oblivation? Was he really the one to make that call one way or another?

Arya briefly considered responding that she had meant just that or something of the like, but bit back her words knowing that not only would they just be having a pointless argument, but it wouldn't end well for her. And the last thing she needed was for her day to get any worse than it already was. Instead she let her brown eyes flick up to Sabel when he spoke before settling on Tate. "Yes, sir." Looks like they HAD to return to the student table now.

Sigh.

Her fingers intertwined with Sabel's as she cast her eyes out towards the table again, more in search of a distraction than for food. Much to her surprise, a silvery wild boar ran in carrying the voice of the flying professor. A mixture of surprise, curiosity, and anxiety surfaced to her expression as she looked between the patronus, Sabel, and the headmaster. What would Professor Vindictus need an obliviator for??

J.J. Starr hit the buffet table. Lots of food here.

After what seemed like alot of wandering around, with Caroline having him stop to gawk at things every five seconds, Elias was thouroughly bored. He knew he shouldn't be, after all this was a party. Of course, watching people's expressions as his daughter's hair cycled through turning red, then blonde, then pink, then back to its original brown was pretty funny.

"Daddy," she whispered, tapping him on the shoulder. "Food." she gave a grin as her hair flashed orange briefly.

Elias smiled. "I see it, but why are we whispering?" She pondered the question, unsure of why they were talking so quietly. She shrugged. "Come on." He led her over to the table, setting her down.

So. Much. Food. Omigosh they had kebabs. Om nom nom....

He picked up a plate, setting a kebab on it. Caroline ventured further down the table, only returning when she had two pickles in each hand and had dumped them on her own plate. Bahahaha.

OHMYGOSH. Food.

After slipping through security, Lucy skirted around the crowd and headed straight for the MASSIVE buffet table. The thirty-one year-old picked up a plate and piled on food, food, food. Of course barely any of it was healthy so she picked up a could of salad leaves and glared at them. Gross. Healthy stuff.

Lucy sighed, put down her plate for a sec and and filled up a glass of pumpkin juice. Siiip. She made a face and looked around for a table.

Caroline skipped back off towards the end of the table, leaving her plate back with her laughing father. Hmm... juice. "Excuse me." the five year old said, looking up at the lady. She reached out for the juice pitcher, almost getting her hand around the handle.

Spotting his child going for the juice, Elias took off towards the end of the table, plates in hand. "Sorry," he apologized to the woman, taking the juice pitcher from Caroline and pouring her a cup himself.

Uh-oh.

People. People saw her with all this food. CRINGE. She looked down and smiled at the small girl. She put down her plate. "I'm sorry, sweetie." Lucy passed the juice pitcher to her. Then the father - well he must be that father (or he was the kid's WAY older brother) - was apologizing.

"What? No need to apologize, I was in the way." She shrugged, not really caring about them seeing her food now. Like, Berty Borr was bound to get double her portion anyway right? Of course she would NEVA say that allowed. She took her plate back in her hands and took a bite out of a reaaly mild tortitia. She glared at it and put down. "That thing needs some spiciness." She muttered and moved onto her hot dog.

"I'm Lucy by the way," she said between bites. She sipped her pumpkin juice. Lucy polished off the hot dog and whiped her hands on a napkin. She would've used the horrible free t-shirts but what if the dude beside her liked Lord Berty Borr and told on her or something? Nope, she was not taking any chances. She was still waiting to be placed and no dude or t-shirt was gonna get in her way of a good job.

Nuh-uh.

He handed his daughter her cup and put the pitcher back on the table.

"Oh, no I was just afraid she'd spill it on you." He gave a chuckle. Caroline had been rather good at that lately. Which would be why he spazzed in public. Gosh, you think he'd be smart enough to know he wasn't supposed to do that by now. Spazzing did not look good on a person's record.

Caroline took a sip of her juice looking up at the lady. Mmmm juice. The lady then started talking to herself, saying that the food needed to be spicy... Maybe she was one of the crazy people. "Why should it be spicy?" the little girl asked. She took another sip of her juice, her hair turning platinum blonde.

Elias nudged his daughter, holding back a laugh. "Nice to meet you Lucy. I'm Elias." Woohoo for being social at a social event! Now he could tell Lauren that he officially had 'work friends'.

Hehe.

"And that would be a total bummer 'cause I'd have to change out of the Lord Berty Borr t-shirt." She said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. It was so ugly. She had a picture of him on her! Gross. That was as close as he was gonna get to her. But still, whenever she looked down and saw him *shiver* - she KNEW she would be having nightmares tonight.

Lucy shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it doesn't HAVE to be spicy but I like things spicy. But I don't like ice-cream spicy. Speaking of ice-cream..." Lucy dumped her plate (still with the salad on it) into the bin and grabbed a cone with two scoops of ice-cream. One with chocolate - the other vanilla. "Do either of you want one?" she asked, reaching out for another cone.

She nodded at him. Cool name, she thought with a lick of her ice-cream. Her eyes darted down to her tee and she gave an ugly look at the frozen Berty.

"Oh I know, that would be tragic." He agreed sarcastically. Elias looked down at the hideousness that was his own shirt. Bleh. He still thought it looked odd with the plaid shirt poking out underneath and the grey sweatshirt overtop.

Caroline nodded. "Ohh." Hmm. Personally, she didn't like spicy food. Except pickles. Pickles were good... But they weren't really spicy.

:O did she just ask if they wanted ice-cream?! Yeeeeess!! She nudged her father.

"I think this one does." He said, nudging his daughter back. "What'll it be? Chocolate?" he asked. She nodded. "One chocolate then. I think I'm fine myself." He had his kebabs. Mwahaha.

"Wouldn't it just?" She asked with a dramatic sigh. "Atleast it was free. But really who would buy it?" Lucy rolled her eyes and glared at the ugly man on her top. "And the worring thing is - he thinks he's gorgeous!" she hissed, looking around hastily to see if anyone heard. She dusted down the horrible thing. Lucy licked her ice cream.

The little girl was just sooo cute! Lucy grinned and got her ice cream and handed it to her. "There you go sweetie."

The man had to bite down on his lip to prevent himself laughing. Really, how was it possible that this man had an ego as big as it appeared? I mean, really?! T-shirts with his face on them?! It was ridiculous.

However, he wasn't about to go insulting a man with power in the ministry. That would be stupid. He wasn't planning on losing his job just yet. "Well, being free is a plus," she was right though, who in their right mind would buy one of these shirts?

Caroline gave a smile, taking the ice-cream. "Thank you." Woot. She got pickles and ice-cream and juice all in one day. Score one for the five year old. She took a lick of the ice-cream, smearing alot of it on her face. Mmm chocolate. You know, ice cream tastes better when it's all over you

"ACHOO!" the girl gave an unexpected sneeze, her hair flaring a bright red momentarily. Hmm... must be spring allergies.

Joey rolled the stroller over to the buffet table "Hey Daddy" she even yelled it.She got a plate and starting putting food on it.Dad i have a Question is alright for heather to have mash potatoes.I go her ice early to day around lunch time.She liked it a lot more then her baby food.Being part veela she growing really fast.I;m trying to keep her healthy but i give her a little of the soft foods that are like her baby food.

Tate was startled by the sudden appearance of Max's patronus, which had disappeared before he even had a moment to respond. His eyes went up to absently scan the crowd as if looking for something, and he quietly spoke to Dakest and Lovegoods.

"Yes, unfortunately we're going to have to leave much sooner. If you can help by starting to gather the students up, we're going to return to the school via Floo." If he could find an open fireplace.