*He smiled as he gave himself a quick look at himself. With a smirk he shrugged and waved off her kind words.*
"Well my wife has great taste in clothes... Although I do think that yellow and black badger bow tie would have looked nice. Bring out some house pride."

*Truth was Matty had bought the bow tie as a joke. He knew his fashion smart wife would find the thing disgusting. But Matty was a dad now. All dads had embarrassing clothes they thought looked good.*

*Thankfully he didn't have say her name as Marie finaly saw who he meant. He made sure to not look at Kayla. That wasn't to hard seeing as how he had his beautiful wife to look at. But he soon felt the gaze of the other woman.*
"Your right, plus he must have known she could show up. Wonder if Gabbens even here yet?"

*Then a sour thought crossed his mind and he frowned. Leaning down his whispered to Marie,*
"Should we go talk to her?"
*He, like Marie, didn't care for what Kayla did to Gabben and the twins. But the last time Kayla had been around she saved Marie's life. For that he would always be thankful to the woman. Maybe that was why he was wondering if they should say hello. Gah! He was never good at these kinds of things. Another reason he was lucky to have Marie.*

Wondering if she was allowed to make a slight modification to the donation form, Kurumi could feel eyes on her. But it really was the cracking of knuckles that caught her attention. Glancing up, her violet eyes fell on a familiar face. Just not a terribly familiar one.

Unable to place her, Kurumi's attention went back to the form where she only got as far as writing her name and the centre that the donation was also meant to represent when she caught the woman STILL starring at her. Goosebumps forming on her forearms, she set the quill down and stood up straight.

"Kurumi Rasting," she said after turning to face the woman and offering her a handshake - she had become used to not bowing first, finally. "Gryffindor class of 2079."

The Frenchman crossed his arms while he stood to the side to figure out how much to donate. It really couldn't be that hard to figure out the amount to donate. Could it? Hmmm. This was a lot harder than it looked. He came from a family of money and being a pro quidditch player it really wasn't hard for him to take out money and donate but he didn't want to donate to much or two little, there had to be a happy medium. Beck glanced over at a voice. "I am. Yourself too?" Beck looked at the woman, he could have sworn that he knew her or had seen her face before.

The other woman had liked her style too.... huh! They said everyone had a twin out there in the world, but what were the chances that she would encounter hers... IF they even looked alike... here at a Board of Governors event, of all places..... it wasn't even Milan Fashion Week, for Circe's sake....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Con_Stripes

The headmistress... Nicholai knew enough to know who she was. He knew of her, rather than knowing her personally, since he'd actually left the year prior to her beginning as Herbology professor, to his wife, his sister, and many of his other friend and family.

"Kayla Winters-Toussaint now." He provided smoothly, the polite smile on his face not giving away his dislike of that unnecessary hyphen, but then he'd barely expected Kayla to do that much, once upon a time. "I'm Nicholai, I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting, Headmistress, though I know you are fairly close with my younger sister Celandine, and my good friend Plymouth Morgan." Name to a face perhaps? Who knew if either of them had mentioned Nico over the years, or if the redhead in front of him was particularly inclined to remember if they had.

"I'd like to know more about where the money will go and how any scholarships would be awarded before I commit to donating." He'd donate substantially if it seemed worthwhile, just not publicly. "Though I'm more than willing to support the Board in their efforts to establish such schemes, in theory."

Oh, Kayla was a Toussaint now, was she? Now there was a curveball Anastasia hadn't seen coming. She quirked an eyebrow at the man introducing himself as Celandine's brother.... "Aha, I see. I hadn't realized you were related." She was all smiles as she shook the man's hand, of course. "I do adore Cela... and Plymouth, by extension... favorite students of mine, your friends...."

Not his wife though. Ahem. She had been such a bossy prefect when Bunz, poor, poor Bunz, had been under the influence of an anti-aging curse (not by her own fault) and plus now it was coming back to her, the last time she had seen Miss Winters-Toussaint. Did the quidditch pitch mean anything to this insane woman?

"You should seek out Cassandra Rae-Branxton or Ivy Knox to answer that question," she replied to Winters' husband with a neutral expression once more. "I would surmise that the scholarships will be awarded on academic merit, but again, that's something to take up with the actual governors."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mell

And Kayla definitely knew this face as well. The last time she had come face to face with the red head had been on the Quidditch pitch where she had threatened the woman for not looking after her son. "Headmistress Truebridge. Lovely to see you again." It was amazing how well she could lie and also be pleasant.

She smiled at the woman and wasn't sure how to respond to that, but was saved the trouble when Nicholai stepped in. Although she did let out a small cough which she covered with her hand. The hyphenated name still irked her husband.

"All the same to you, dear, but I simply MUST be moving on now. I think I saw my ah, husband over yonder," she lied. She was 100% lying. Annie was an accomplished liar, in fact, but don't blame the Bunz for not wanting to hang around Angry Mother Bear Winters. Geez.

Oh look, was that Cale Newell behind them? "CALE! SO good to see you, it's just been AGES," the Headmistress moved down the line as though she were going to talk to him, but ended up moving right past him. He did get a gentle pat on the arm, though. "Glad you came, Cale. And Kurumi too! Oh how lovely to see you again, dear, and thank you for the donation to your alma mater." Kurumi also received a distracted pat-pat on her hand.

But really now, she was leaving to find Zan. She needed her husband. Was he by the food table? The yearbooks? Probably the books, that made the most sense....

Contrary to what her niece thought, Roxanne was in fact not at the buffet. No, a little table with a box on it had caught her attention. A donation box. She definitely supported young people bettering themselves through education. In fact, it was a point of pride with her that she absolutely refused to hire anyone for the French MLE that didn't have a college degree. So, of course she would donate. She filled out the wizarding check first then the form. A hundred galleons. Then she slipped both into the box.

Now, to go into the reunion proper, and hopefully avoid the pig her brother was going to make of himself.

Lewis had wandered off by himself for a while. It felt...surreal to be back here. Thinking about it, it hadn't even been THAT long ago since they'd graduated. So much had happened since then though. He was married to the love of his life. They shared a home. They both had jobs. They had a wonderful son. Who was with his grandfather today, by the way.

Which didn't stop Lewis from still sliiiiiightly worrying about him.

He was just so used to having him around that it made him feel slightly anxious not to. But this was nice. Being back here. It was distracting him enough at least to keep him from sending a Patronus home to Charles to ask about James' well-being. No. He wouldn't do that. This was nice. It was great to be back here.

A drink in hand, Lewis finally found Kurumi again by the donation center. Walking up next to her, he smiled, put an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "Hey." He was back. Oh. Oops. And she was talking to someone. OOPS. "Sorry." He blushed sliiiiightly. Someone who didn't know him well probably wouldn't even see it. If you did look closely, though, it was definitely there. Oops.

"Hello. I'm Lewis Rasting." He offered the woman Kurumi was with his hand in greeting.

Okay, this was getting on her nerves. WHY couldn't she pinpoint where she knew this woman from? Then she turned around to face her and said her name, and at that moment it clicked.

Kurumi. She'd been absolutely AWFUL to Ryden, and suddenly the brunette felt fifteen and attacked again. Frowning at the hand that was being offered to her, Ryden was debating what to do when someone else came and- Oh. Kissing on heads, matching surnames, awkward couple-y hugs? All the things Ryden did not ever want to see. Time to leave.

Pretending to wave at someone behind them and praying that they wouldn't turn around, she smiled as brightly as she could at the girl she'd once deeply disliked and her husband, whom she didn't recognise at all.

"Right, yes, Kurumi Rasting and Lewis Rasting. SO nice to see you guys, hope you have a good time tonight. Sorry my friends just got here, I'll see you around, bye!" and with that she hurried into the most crowded area she could see. Once there, she sighed and began meandering again. Note to self: there's a 85% chance she won't actually meet anyone she likes tonight. She hadn't, after all, liked all that many people back when she attended this school.

Of course she was right. Marie was always right. Well in her mind she was always right. "We haven't even been here for five minutes and already you're wondering about Gabben?" And now he wanted to know if they should talk to Kayla? Hell no they shouldn't talk to her. Marie did not get all dressed up and come to this thing just to talk to Kayla and worry about Gabben. Apparently her husband did though.

"I did not come here tonight to get caught up in more of your damn family drama. I came here to meet up with friends I haven't seen in a long time and to have a good time. If you want to talk to Kayla then you go do it on your own. I have no intentions of talking to her now or ever." Turning away from her husband, Marie walked away to find her friends.

So much for them having one night where they didn't argue about something.

"Of course I don't want to, I want to spend time with you. Marie... please don't be like that..."
*It was just a question. He didn't know the proper way to handle situations like that. Was there a proper way to handle seeing your uncles ex-wife who happened to save the life of your wife but had abandoned her own kids leaving you and your wife to take care of them right after you got married? Letting out a long sigh he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. Looking over he saw Kayla looking at him and he glared at her. If Kayla so much as tried anything with his family then there would be problems. He was already having a hard enough time with his own wife. Looking away he went off to find Marie.*

Unsure of what to make of the quick pat-pat from the Headmistress (former Headmisstress? Her former Headmistress? Merlin it was hard figuring out how to label everyone), Kurumi bowed slightly to the red-head as she departed. Guess she wouldn't be asking her about some specifics with her donation.

But her attention was quickly back on the woman in front of her that she could not place. Kurumi liked to think that she knew her classmates well enough not to forget faces, but she felt incredibly embarrassed right now. Especially since the mystery woman was STILL staring at her. All unease she may have been feeling disappeared the moment a familiar arm was around her. "You found me," she laughed softly, looking up and smiling at her husband.

And then...the mystery woman was gone...and without any sort of introduction of herself. Now she, Kurumi, would never be able to piece together how the only interaction she had ever had with the woman had been in an Astronomy lesson during her third year...and a very unfortunate sort of interaction at that. Although not as fiery or unfortunate as the woman's interactions with Selina had been. But alas, she had left to go be with her friends and left Kurumi standing there blinking in mild confusion.

"That was....sudden," she said, peeking up once more at Lewis while shrugging her shoulders and reaching for his hand with her own to lace their fingers together. "Did you recognize her?"