Hadley grinned when she saw Colby walk towards her and she stopped in her tracks. He was supposed to meet her after all. "Well, don't you look pulchritudinous tonight?" she gave him a smirk as she wondered if he knew what that meant.

Merlin knows, she didn't until a few minutes ago.

Blushing as he kissed her, she couldn't help but giggle as he now had her lipstick on..his lips. Wiping it off, since that would be TOTALLY embarrassing for him, she shook her head at his question, "No, nothing serious. Just had to find the right shoes to match my dress!" She went on to lift her dress a tad bit to show off her shoes. "I had to borrow them from my sister."

Good thing they had the same size feet.

outfits are posted in the "what are they wearing" thread
 

Elizabeth was excited. Probably more than Robert was, seeing as the petite blonde was basically dragging him back to Hogwarts, but she wanted to see people. Especially a certain best friend of hers that she hadn't seen in forever, even though she'd sent owls to Mari over the last several years. She hadn't actually seen the brunette, though, and that was what made her excited. Things had just changed so much. Her book, Robert's Quidditch career . . . she wanted to see if Mari was as good as she hoped, or, and she really hoped it wouldn't be necessary, she could make her best friend feel better.

At least she'd actually dressed up. She was surprisingly comfortable in the fitted dress, given she still tended to prefer to not dress formally when she could avoid it. That was part of why she'd chosen the dress, along with wanting to prove she actually could dress nicely. Even if Paris wasn't there, she felt obligated to prove herself. Besides, she actually had reasons to dress up, given various events she'd had to go to after her book had been published. Not to mention other things. Looking around, her green eyes locked on the tall, familiar dark-haired girl heading toward the Great Hall and she smiled before glancing at Robert for a minute. "Come on," she said with a little laugh, before pulling him along behind her as she headed for Mari. She'd get him to enjoy himself, somehow.

Grayson semi-bounced into the Entrance Hall, her Converse probably clashing a little with the blue dress her family had coerced her into wearing. But they'd lost the battle when it came to her feet. She already wasn't sure she wanted to go because of the whole waltzing thing, but she knew Raven would be there. Which meant fun, especially if they managed any of their little plots they'd thought up. Plus, she'd helped with the decorations so she wanted to be there. She just didn't really care much about the actual "ball" portion of things, and had a feeling Professor Vindictus would be with her family, insofar as having issues with her shoes. Maybe she could manage to not be seen by her head of house at all tonight. There had to be lots of groups of people she could get lost in.

As she worked her way further into the room, she saw Sho, looking like she wanted to be there even less than Grayson did, and she waved at the older Ravenclaw girl as she passed. They needed to meet up again sometime, whether it be to race up trees again or do who knew what else. That was why she liked the other girl. But then she saw Raven, and stifled a giggle as she approached her partner in crime. "Um, I see you went for glamour," she said with a grin as she looked up at the seventh-year Slytherin. "Can you still do pranks in that?" There were enough conversations going on between all the others flowing into the entrance hall that the innocent question could hopefully remain unnoticed. And besides, by now she had a feeling it wouldn't attract much attention anyway. They hadn't actually done anything yet.

Robert followed Liz reluctantly the small girl practically dragging his giant form. He was dressed in a suit which he hadn't worn in...who knew how long and didn't want to be here. He knew Mari was her best friend but he would much rather have avoided everyone and stayed home. Not like he had been missed any he was sure.

Tugging at his jacket restlessly he sighed, "Why do I have to be here again?" He felt like a puppet in this suit. Reaching up he loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button. "And why did I have to dress up?" He was a famous Quidditch player surely whatever he wanted to wear would've been fine. Spotting the unmistakable figure of Mari he groaned and allowed her to drag him toward Mari. "Liz..." Did she not remember the last time they'd spoken? Hopefully Cayden wasn't here though.

Raven was getting rather bored of waiting around, it definitely looked bad for her since Daniel still hadn't shown up yet; but when she noticed Grayson, a slight chuckle escaped from her lips. Her partner in crime's outfit was rather interesting but it wasn't exactly something that she didn't expect, she knew the Ravenclaw all too well and it was still rather amusing to her. "Of course I did, this is a ball after all. And I wanted to distract attention away from our plan." A slight devious grin etched across Raven's red lips as she looked around at the other people, trying to keep her voice low. "I certainly can, I've done this many times before so I know how things are going to work; the main thing is we keep our true intentions for this event hidden, otherwise we're going to have some serious problems on our hands and I for one do not want to deal with that." She fiddled with one of her rings on her pinky finger, it seemed that this ball was definitely going to be something to remember. Heh.

Kristin and Cinn :P
 

Jake, in his uncharacteristically smart clothing, was waiting by the doors for his date. He was so twitchy and nervous, but excited all the same. Every now and then the boy looked down at the letter the girl had replied with.

Folding up the note and tucking it back into his breast pocket, Jake smiled to himself. He could not WAIT for this.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes a little, affectionately, as she got the somewhat expected complaining from Robert as they worked their way through the entrance hall, before glancing back to see him fidgeting with his suit. "You're here 'cause you're the big, bad Quidditch star, and you want to show people that. And 'cause I'm here," she said with a grin. "And I didn't force you to dress up, although you have to admit it loks better than if I was wearing this and you were all casual," she pointed out, letting go of his hand for a moment as she indicated her dress. Then she took his hand again as she went back to pulling him along, sighing a little as he groaned. "He's not here," she said softly to him, so he could hear but hopefully no one else could, guessing at at least part of his issue. She thought things had gotten a little better with the situation with Mari, but maybe it was still a work-in-progress. She wasn't about to abandon it, though.

And then they'd arrived at where Mari was, or at least to where she was headed back toward them and she smiled at the comment about finding each other fast. "Did you actually think it would be hard to find me?," she replied, a little teasingly. It couldn't have been that hard, really. Especially since she had a feeling Robert was sticking with her the whole time. He wasn't exactly inconspicuous. The thought went to the back of her mind, though, as her best friend finally got back to them and she was enveloped in a hug. "Um, thanks," she said a little awkwardly. She'd expected comments about her outfit, but it was still weird. "You look amazing too," she returned with a smile. Mari always had been a bit more into clothes than she ever had, though. And then she felt the awkwardness come back, and stepped back a little as Mari spoke to Robert. She really wanted things to be better, thought they were better. Really. If they could be. And she didn't fail to notice how much Mari was saying, without really saying a whole lot. "We should," she said with a tiny nod, agreeing with her as she decided she'd do whatever it took to get everyone less tense. Even if she had to use all her skills to convince Robert to stay. At least there was food. Maybe that would distract him so she could focus on everything.

Grayson grinned up at Raven as the older girl laughed. She knew it was her outfit, but that didn't bother her. It was her, and there was no way of stopping her from wearing what she wanted. And she knew Raven knew that. "I get that," she said as she was told the outfit was a distraction. "Good idea. But mine could work too." Distract people with the tiny blonde wearing sneakers to a ball. It worked in her mind, and she was always the one who was thought to be innocent anyway. And her eyes sparkled mischievously at the reference to their plan. She nodded as Raven continued speaking though, all business even though still devious. "Of course. Wouldn't want people to suspect us." Not when they hadn't started up the plan yet, and even after that, she thought it was the whole point to not get caught. So dressing up was camouflage.

Robert smirked and looked at Liz. "Big bad Quidditch star eh," he laughed and looked around wondering if Vindictus was here. That was one person he'd like to see. He still tugged at his suit slightly feeling rather irritated but hearing her words looked her up and down. Well she did have a point. Guess he better suck it up and go with it.

As Mari med them he watched her and Liz hug and simply nodded as she said he looked good. "Thanks. You too." It was odd because he still hadn't forgiven her for what she had done yet..he didn't care for her in that way either. He didn't know what he was feeling anymore. Wrapping his arm around Liz he listened as the two talk, his eyes darting around for anyone he knew. Maybe Willow was here. Hearing something about food his attention was caught and he looked at the two of them. "Food?" He was starving. He was always starving it seemed though.

At least Cayden wasn't here though that was one thing that he didn't need to worry about. Maybe it won't be so bad after all. Running his hand along Liz's side he gripped her hand. If only he had a game tomorrow and then he could leave early but...he'd much rather hang out with Liz all night. He looked down at her and smiled as she talked to Mari. He did love her. In a way he should thank Mari...in a way.

As he walked in the entrance hall wearing his dark suit with a white shirt, Joshua looked around to see if Evelyn had arrived. Yet though Destiyn was there (she was looking beautiful) talking to someone who looked like Carter's Marie, Rose was nowhere in sight. Gah. Even the Stutters was wearing a suit and he looked funny in it. Heheheheheheh. Mmm stop looking at that way. He was not going to tease him this time. And with this thought he focused his thoughts on Evelyn and how she'd look while all girls looked that beautiful.

Ugh. Her mother did this on purpose. Evelyn clearly stated to send her the white dress she wore last Christmas. Sure, she wasn't supposed to mail home anymore, and this was her punishment. Clearly, this black dress, was not white. Whatever though. She'd just have to live with it.

Making her way up from the dungeons, blowing a stray hair away from her (finally back to) hazel eyes, Evelyn stopped for a moment at the crowd of people in the entrance hall. Well, she wasn't that late was she? Spotting Marie walk into the other room with Carter, the Slytherin smirked, having seen her only moments before, however, her smirk turned almost shy when she saw who she really was looking for. Well, of course, she was looking for a lot of people...but he was on the top of her list.

Almost hesitantly, the girl walked up to him, taking note of his outfit and deciding he looked rather handsome in the suit, the Slytherin smiled once more, though perhaps a little more nervously. "So, you really are the master of everything." she said, gesturing to his outfit before clasping her hands behind her back. Eesh. Evelyn did not do nervous! It was too...nerve-wracking.

Sweeping into the entrance hall and trying her utmost not to trip over the bloody dress she was wearing and stay upright on the four inch heels that were on her feet, Kayla looked at the familiar surroundings of the entrance hall.

A small smile spread across her face, she had missed this place. How long had it been? Four years? It felt like a lifetime.

As her gaze roamed the hall looking for someone in particular and she finally spotted him standing near the doors to the Great Hall. An even bigger smile spread across her face and her eyes sparkled with both mischief and joy.

She headed towards her date for the evening and was by his side in moments. "Looking good Upstead" she said as she linked her arm through his. "The sneakers really set it off" she added in a whisper.

This...was more awkward than Mari had anticipated. " You're welcome," she told Elizabeth with another bright smile. When her friend turned the compliment back on herself, Mari smiled more. She couldn't help it. She'd always been vain; Elizabeth knew this well enough. " Thank you. I know it's plain, my dress...but I thought the plainer my dress, the better my accessories could be." She said, showing Elizabeth her earrings and necklace, as well as her bracelet.

" Of course I knew I would find you easily. With or without your Quidditch man." She said, attempting to make things a bit less awkward. " Although, I have to say you being so dressed up would have made it a bit of a challenge." She teased Elizabeth lightly before looking over her shoulder into the Great Hall, which was when she heard Robert say something about food.

Mari pushed some hair back from her face and smiled."See? I knew we'd find something in common." Mari laughed. " I'm hungry as well. We should go eat." She said, stepping back a bit and motioning for them to follow her. " Then I can show you some pictures of Bella and Alex," She said, sounding very excited about that. " Since I haven't sent you any since they were born," She said with another small laugh.

Eep! Tallness!

The fact that Kayla once again towered above him, however, was blah. Jake didn't care. He gotted to see Kayla agaaaiiin.

"Not sssso bad yourself, Winters," Jake winked, kinda almost stretching up a bit to try and seem taller. "You hhhhad to wear those bbbloody heels," he also hissed through gritted teeth whilst disguising his features as a smile.

Hmmmm... where to now? Jake... had no idea. "Should we go to the rrrecieving line... thing?"

Kayla punched him on the arm. "Not bad? Do you know how long it took me to find this dress?" Actually it had taken her about thirty seconds. She had reached into her wardrobe and pulled out the first thing that her hands had landed on. She had no idea where she even got the dress from but eh it seemed suitable enough.

Chuckling softly, Kayla looked down at Jake something she was very used to by now. "Easily fixed" she stated and then slipped her shoes off. "Better?"

Holy crap!

The boy had grown some. He was almost as tall as she was now. That was gonna be scary if he got any taller, she wouldn't be able to boss him around anymore.

At his question, Kayla turned to look at the receiving line and then turned back to Jake. "What the hell for? I can't see anyone that I know and besides I'm in the mood to party not make small talk." She gave him a wink in return.

His eyes were at the way which lead to the dungeons as he stood beside a portrait who was complaining about the boy's choice of position to stand, for she could not see all the attendees. Of course Joshua ignored the angry woman in the portrait since, to his surprise, he was feeling a little bit nervous. Evelyn was already very beautiful even with her Slytherin school uniform so how she was going to look now was beyond the boy's imagination.

But where was she? He had seen a couple of Slytherins walk in the Entance Hall from where he stared however there was no Rose yet. So, trying to look like as if he was not interested in that passage where Slytherins walked out the Gryffindor boy started to look around and it was the very time he heard her voice. ROSE!

Smirking widely he turned to reply to her words yet he failed to pronunce any word when he saw the girl in her black dress. ''I...'' he said then realising what he was doing and imagining probably how silly he looked he quickly spoke ''Wow! Rose, you look...perfect''

Perfect? Teehee. He called her perfect. "Thank you." she said in a small voice, looking down at her feet for a second before looking back up to him. Yes, she hated emotions. Butterflies. She had butterflies. That was normal...right? Or, no? Yes?

Deciding to just forget about it, the Slytherin smiled once more, resisting the urge to fix her hair. "You look very nice too." Which was an understatement. He looked more than nice. Probably the best guy dressed here. Simple, yet...perfect. For him at least. Except...for that one piece of hair that was sticking up. She'd seen it before, and it always bothered her.

Raising her hand, she looked at him in the eyes for a moment, before trying to gently pat down the stubborn hair on his head. Pfft. It was more than stubborn. "Nevermind..." she muttered, putting her hand back down and glancing to the doors. "Do you want to go inside? Or...are you waiting for somebody?"

Keeley had to laugh as her eyes were covered and she heard William's imitation of some kind of darth vadar voice. Teehee. Although it was tempting to duck away from the hands covering her eyes, she just replied with a giggle, "Uhm...uh...oh...no idea. Just kidding. Hiya William!" Hm, now would her eyes be uncovered?

"Owwww," Jake mock-whined, rubbing his eyes before poking his tongue out. "I ttttold you before; nnno hitting Jakers!"

Hehehe.

As Kayla kicked off her heels, Jake fought the urge to make a joke about stinkeh feet... but decided against it; the girl had a thing about whacking him upside the head.

Stooping down to pick up Kayla's shoes, he hooked his fingers beneath the straps and straightened up again. "Let's go party thhhen," he grinned, making a note to try not to step on Kayla's bare feet.

When Jake poked his tongue out her, Kayla's hand darted forward and she grabbed him on the chin. "Get. Out" she said staring at his tongue and the piece of jewellry she could see. "You got your tongue pierced. When did you do that? And more importantly what did your parents say?"

Hehe awesome!!

Oh how cute is that? Jake is being the perfect gentleman tonight and Kayla intended on taking full advantage of it because she had the feeling it wasn't going to last long.

"Yes let's" she replied with a small giggle. "So where are going to first?"

Hells to the ya.

"I wwwas wondering when you'd sssee it," Jake grinned, and celebrated by rattling the jewellry against his teeth as he waggled his tongue from side to side. "Reeeecently. My dddad took me last tttime I was home."

Straightening again and tugging on the black and white tie that was doing a good job at choking him, Jake thought... and failed. "I dddunno... but I'm pretty thhhirsty. Did you wwwant to get something to d-d-drink?"

And once more, Jake held back from joking And then find somewhere to sit so we can ditch your shoes. They're making me gag.

Nahhhh, her feet smelled lovely. Hehe.

Moving along for food. :P
 

Elizabeth grinned again as Robert picked up on hersemi-facetious excuse for why he had to come. "You know you were thinking it," she teased, before laughing a little as he looked around the room. "I bet he's here somewhere. We can find him eventually." He had to be thinking about Professor Vindictus. It was either that or some of their former teammates, but something told her it was Vindictus. Although she was curious if Willow was coming. That would just be interesting. And she watched him as he folowed her indication of her outfit, amused by how much he still seemed to be uncomfortable but was going along with her.

But then there was the distraction that was Mari. Not to mention how her excitement was now tempered by the fact it seemed things were still weird when it came to dealing with her best friend and her boyfriend. In the same place. She still hoped in time it would be less weird. And she couldn't not notice how quiet Robert was being, as she tried to keep the conversation going. "You're welcome," she said as Mari thanked her for returning the compliment about their attire. "You can never go wrong with simple," she added, before leaning forward a little to look at the jewelry. "Pretty."

She smiled again as Mari responded to her question, feeling like maybe tension might be easing up finally. "Well, you know I would have found you, at least. And I wasn't about to not dress up." Even if it was still strange-feeling to actually be dressed up. Too much time at home, where it really didn't matter what she wore. And then, as Robert had his arm wrapped around her, she laughed as he picked up on the food topic. And Mari responded. She glanced upward at him as he switched to holding her hand, before looking back at Mari. "Okay, I guess we better feed you both. Before we risk a disaster," she teased both of them, before starting to follow her best friend into the Great Hall.

Then another amused look crossed her face at Mari's continued conversation. "Bella?," she asked, finding a bit of humor in it all. Especially considering she'd heard about them before. "Can't say I have any pictures. Since I'm fairly certain you don't need to see my Bella. Or Macavity." Her pets were still doing amazing, though, considering they'd lived in like three different places in the last few years. She was fairly certain she was pretty settled now though. As they crossed into the hall, though, she glanced at Mari again. "I did get my book published, though." She didn't have that with her, however. But she also didn't remember if she'd told Mari it was getting published, or that she'd even been writing it.

Horrifying.

That was the only way to describe it. She was terrified. Luckily she managed to scrape a decent strut in heels or she would've fallen over. Leant up against the wall of the Entrance Hall stood the Gryffindor - munching on what was left of her nails.

"Bloody nerves.. bloody Oliver.. I swear to merlin and his fuzzy.." Her rant went on under her breath as she attempted to calm herself. Flushed and red-faced, she scowled. She'd put a lot of effort into her.. ermm.. look today. She had dark eyeshadow and her lips were done a bright, clashing red. She'd left her blush at home.. her cheeks would do their own highlighting tonight if the Slytherin Captain showed.

She hadn't a clue why she'd agreed to this. A BALL!? Cameron couldn't dance to save her life - that much was clear from her aweeeeesome display at the dance lesson. Merlin, that had been embarassing.

Sigh.

Oh maan.. this was so stupid!

Oliver was unusually nervous.. and not because of the dance, but because he was meeting a certain redheaded girl here tonight... as his date for the dance. It was a date, right? Oliver was still doubting that the girl had actually agreed to come here with him as more than a friend.

He wasn't the most attractive boy was Oliver no, that was Torin Kane but he wasn't too bad on the eyes – sort of average with strange eyebrows and that annoying mop ontop his head. He was worried that Cameron was above him. Give Cameron Brody Summer's personality and she would be like Lil Miss Hogwarts, but Oliver felt safe in the knowledge that she was little bit (or a lot) kooky and slightly scary in her own way and therefore was avoided by the 'popular' boys... and of course Oliver wouldn't change her personality for anything. Change that and she wouldn't be Cameron Caddock anymore.

So after a deep breath and making sure that his cocky smile was in place to hide the nerves, Oliver sauntered casually into the entrance hall to find it rather packed. Looking over the heads of the other students (that was the beauty of being tall), he spotted the redhead leaning against the far wall looking.. none too happy. :erm:

He wandered over to her and leaned against the wall beside her trying to look all cool and calm and casual. She looked so different with all that make-up on. Cute though. “Hey.” He said with smile still in place, ignoring the scowl on her face. “Come here often?” Oh ho ho ho! How hilariously cheesily cliché.