Open! The Aftermath of a Tea Party Closed

No one was talking about the tea party. In Ruthie's opinion, this was excellent. She did not want to talk about the tea party. In fact she did not even want to attend the tea party. It had all been the fault of a certain wonderful Ravenclaw bestie. But she had been. And she had and it had been a mess. Arriving late and staying on the sidelines, she'd managed to avoid the center of the drama. But heard that scream--that really loud, sudden scream of some girl getting tea on her--and she heard about some head bashing. Basically, it seemed the flying professor's event had become the Ball in miniature and Ruthie wanted to stay far, far away from anything like that. So she'd hung close to Jake, in part to protect and in part to remain away from the chaos, but always looking for an escape.

Thankfully, the whole thing did, eventually, pass. And here she was on an ordinary morning at Hogwarts. She never skipped breakfast. While the temptation to sleep in might have been strong for other students, Ruthie was accustomed to early morning starts. That's how it had always been at home on the docks--up before dawn.

And so, she sauntered into the Great Hall without much grace, but rather an almost confident walk as if she were going somewhere. After all, fish waited for no man or woman. Arriving through the wooden doors, she was making her way over to the Ravenclaw table as per usual when she noticed a tall boy just sort of standing there awkwardly. She recognized him from some of the SWAG club games, but she'd never spoken to him properly before. From his expression, he seemed a bit nervous though she didn't know why. "Excuse me, but are you all right?" she asked him politely. Her Ravenclaw robes were clean and well-starched and she carried a midnight blue satchel at her side, which held the books for her morning classes. Her expression was not so much concern as curiosity. The Great Hall was familiar, commonplace. Why would anyone be nervous here? It was just another day--unlike yesterday--and for that the Scottish girl was grateful.

Interacting with @Alan Vanes

The Valentine's tea party had been a disaster. Jake had been the only one to bring a stuffed animal, then the party had fallen down to chaos that had him hiding under the table (and thankful for his stuffed animal), then there had been shouting...maybe even blood...then their flying professor had humiliated him in front of the whole group, and then there'd been pairings of love. It'd been horrible!

Luckily this one ended without a fire, but Jake had heard so much shouting...He was sure somebody must have gotten hurt...but he had been too afraid with all the commotion that he hadn't really gotten a good look. He thought he had seen somebody go off to the hospital wing...and it sounded like it had been some kind of fight. Whoever it was, Jake really hoped they were ok.

After all that, Jake really didn't want to go to the great hall - the thought of being around so many people filled him with dread, but the anxious boy hadn't even touched his dinner the night before and now his tummy was protesting loudly - no longer allowing any other option besides having some breakfast, so he dragged himself out of his bed and made his way down to the Great Hall.

The one good thing about all of it was that so much had been going on the day before that nobody seemed to have noticed much of what Jake had been doing. He braced himself for comments or teasing when he came down to breakfast, but didn't get any. Still, he didn't feel like sitting alone today - his nerves were just a little frayed. He kept an eye out for a familiar face. He could have ate by George and Jack, but if he did that then he was going to have to pretend he wasn't nervous. Plus, he sort of wanted to sit by somebody who might be quieter today.

As he scanned the room, he soon recognized a familiar blue satchel. His feet quickly redirected. Ruthie had protected him at the party, and had stayed by him the whole time. Part of that was because she had had to (since the Professor had paired her with Freddie and all) but probably it wasn't JUST that. Being around her had make Jake feel better then, and uneasy as he was, he couldn't help but want to be near somebody that would make him feel safe.

"Hi Ruthie," Jake waved, giving the Ravenclaw a quick hug from the side in greeting. But, realizing how many people were around, he blushed and let go quickly. He noticed for the first time that she wasn't standing alone, and turned to see....

"Oh, hi Alan," Jake said, looking up at the Gryffindor boy. "Did you get any new stickers...?" he asked curiously. Jake had been very impressed by the older boy's decorated bag.

Hazel had been fortunate enough to miss out on the entire Valentine's tea party fiasco, but that didn't mean she hadn't heard about it. In fact, aside from the poison candies and murderous hags, the tea party was just about all anybody talked about. It was mostly first years, yakking about the fuss it all caused. Bastille had mentioned a few fleeting words to her about it, but other than that and the gossip in the hall, asking about the details had simply slipped her mind.

She wasn't sure what it was about being outside the loop, but not knowing the in-betweens of the event was starting to make her feel like she had nothing to talk about. Hazel already felt like an outsider, and it wasn't because of her blood status; she was muggle-raised, and so she felt as if everything here was just new and foreign and completely baffling. Then she saw others who seemed to live in it as they were raised and had known nothing but the enchanted world - and Hazel longed to feel that at ease.

Upon her entrance into the great hall for a spot of breakfast, Hazel gnawed on her lip. She could sit down to eat...or she could ask some of the people who had been at the tea party what had happened that made it so awful. And even though the orange juice looked so good in its glass, with the steaming eggs and crisp bacon, Hazel's curiosity got the better of her, and she petered over to the small group of students.

"Hi, um - excuse me?" Hazel piped, white-knuckling her satchel strap. "I'm Hazel." She shuffled her feet; tugged on a curl of her hair, and glanced from Jake, to Ruthie, to Alan. "I don't mean to intrude, because I don't know any of you and it probably seems a little rude of me to ask this without, um..." You're rambling, nitwit! Her brain chided. Hazel took a breath and huffed it out, blush high on her cheekbones. "I'm afraid I wasn't at the tea party yesterday, and it's all anybody's talked about. I was wondering if you could tell me what happened that's got everybody in such a knot?"

Interacting with @Jake Morris @Ruthie Greer @Alan Vanes

Opeila entered the Great Hall, not quite awake yet. Her mind was still spinning around the tea party of the day before. She had gotten involved with Persephone Barret going crazy, then got her foot broken and then puked on by concussed Ruka. Amazing day, crowned by Professor Bercegeay, who had made bad 'in sickness and in health' jokes.
She had planned to just walk over to the Slytherin table and have breakfast, when she saw Alan, the boy, who had come to their table. Opeila didn't really have a chance to talk to him, before she had ran off to the table, where Persephone had done her best to ruin her reputation, and with it house Slytherin's.
She walked over to the Gryffindor, who was now also surrounded by two Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw. Well. There was some green missing in this circle.
"Hey.", she said, sending Alan and the unknown people a little smile. "Sorry, that I just ran off yesterday... My housemate just is... crazy. But she's an exceptional Slytherin, I promise, we're not all like this." The last sentence was addressed to the whole group. "Uhm. Right, uh, I am Opeila." Well done Opeila, very awkward. She innerly rolled her eyes ate herself.

@Alan Vanes @Hazel Caelum @Ruthie Greer @Jake Morris

Interacting with: @ Alan Vanes | @ Ruthie Greer | @ Hazel Caelum
Mentioning: @ Opeila Seilun

Alan walked into the Great Hall still mulling over the events that happened during the Tea Party. The boy pondered in his mind as he reflected on how quickly things seem to occur from a simple gathering to a fight, destroying is friends present and then resuming as if nothing happened. Alan had a sense of regret of having gone as the young lad knew the events wouldn't go so well feeling that his bad luck had a part to play in that madness. Reasons for Alan coming to the Tea Party in the first place was due to a friend inviting him, which he refused to let them down.

Finally making his way to the Ravenclaw table as Per Alan's usual routine, he was heading towards space where it was the least populated which he preferred as it didn't force him to interact with people. From Afar, Alan recognised two people from the Tea Party, the blonde first year he heard in passing was Ruthie a fellow Ravenclaw and the third year boy which he recalled was also called Alan. The Young Lad grinned to himself the odds of another Alan in the school made him chuckle, curious he decided to not sit alone today. Wanting to break his cycle of being an introvert was difficult, but nonetheless, Alan approached the pair waving with a weak anxious smile across his face. Seeing the other Alan appear quite nervous the young lad imagined it may be due to the events of the Tea Party as he was tending to the Gryffindor boys friend. Sporting his usual Ravenclaw uniform the arm of his robe slightly longer than the other while carrying a backpack stacked with books which appeared quite heavy as if he were lugging bricks.

Once in close, he says to the pair "Hey, you're that other Alan right the one Gris introduce me to, I'm also Alan." Not sure how to introduce himself to the conversation he looked towards Ruthie "Hello again Ruthie."
Alan greeted several others who came to join the small group that was forming waving to them all, recognising Opeila from the event. Alan was a little hesitant when the subject of the Tea Party was brought up wanting to put that disaster behind him. On top of that, he didn't do to well in groups taking a deep breath he maintained the nervous smile as he said to Hazel "U-Umm, in short, it was a d-d-disaster n-n-never again."

| Open to Interaction |
interacting with @Ruthie Greer, @Jake Morris, @Hazel Caelum, @Opeila Seilun & @Alan Noble

Th young Gryffindor stood there, not for long, when a voice caught his attention. It was the same voice that had been screaming in panic, when they were playing the Two Flags game with the club... but Alan had no idea what the name of said person was, so he just glanced at her curiously, hoping she was alright by now. "Y-yes, yes... sorry. I just got lost in my thoughts f-for a moment...", he mumbled, his cheeks tinting a slight red in embarrassment, as he glanced at the girl with the curly blonde hair.

Before he could ask for her name, another voice went and again it was one the third year was familiar with; it belonged to Jake Morris, a sweet Hufflepuff that he has met on the train about a month ago, as they were heading back to Hogwarts. Alan quickly, shook his head, to answer the boy's question. "No... I have not, it isn't easy to get new stickers here", he explained to the younger student. He had already bought all the ones he could find in Hogsmeade before now, so he would have to look harder to find new stickers that he could plaster all over his trunk. "H-hey Opeila", he greeted the girl that joined them, "How is your foot?", he wondered, glancing down, before looking her in the eyes again. A lot of student seemed to gather here and Alan wanted to leave it to someone else to explain Hazel what had been going on the previous day... someone who was better at talking than he was, preferably.

Alan blinked in confusion, when he was named the other Alan by a kid, staring at him in confusion and some curiosity, before he couldn't help but grin silly. "H-hi other Alan", he greeted back in kind, before finally letting the others do the talking, so that they could explain Hazel what went down the day before... Alan's thought wandering to Ruka, wondering whether the kida was alright.

Lost in his thoughts. What a weird place for that to happen--the middle of the Great Hall. "Uhuh," she quickly dismissed. He seemed somewhat unsure, his speech slow and stuttering. If she knew anything about getting lost in thought, it was that the process simply needed to pass on its own.

She was about to leave the older boy alone when she was swept up in a side hug by one of her favorite people: the wee Jake Morris. Returning his side hug, she asked, "How are you this morning, Jake?" She hoped he was feeling a bit better. The tea party had seemed like such a bizarre goings-on, which had absolutely terrified the young badger. She shouldn't blame him. It was easy to get triggered, she had learned. Jake seemed to know the older boy, who apparently had some stickers, but not any new ones. Stickers seemed cool, the sort of small trifle her childhood had been missing.

She was about to go take a seat when the group got approached by another young student she didn't know. The tan-skinned girl inquired as to what had happened at the tea party. Ru was not particularly keen to answer--she hadn't wanted to attend in the first place. Instead, her eyebrows just raised, looking across at the girl who had no idea how lucky she was to not attend. But more people came over still. One was a girl she didn't know, but from her language, it seemed she had also been at the tea party and likely in the thick of the drama that had freaked out Jake. The other was an acquaintance she knew from the Common Room. "Hey Alan, good to see you," she greeted him.

And it was Alan--the Alan she knew--who took up the task of explaining the 'disaster' events of the tea party as they had been asked earlier. "Yeah, that sounds right," she agreed. She didn't know the details and she didn't particularly want to. She didn't want to recall other Hogwarts drama. Couldn't they just have a normal event at Hogwarts? Just once? Perhaps not as the brunette girl had apparently hurt herself somehow as suggested by other Alan. It was really rather funny that there were two Alans. She assumed they would be different, despite the fact that they seemed to share a certain nervousness among groups.

Then her stomach started to growl and she recalled why she was here: food. Hogwarts was always great at putting together delicious meals, which would be well deserved following yesterday. "I better go eat something," she told them, "Got an early class. It was nice to meet you all." And so readjusting her satchel on her shoulder, she gave Jake a tap 'goodbye' on the shoulder and walked along towards the Ravenclaw table.

For @Alan Vanes, @Jake Morris, @Hazel Caelum, @Opeila Seilun & @Alan Noble. Ruthie will leave the thread unless stopped.

Interacting with: @ Ruthie Greer | @ Alan Vanes

Alan pondered to himself if this was the opportune moment to meet and greet people. Alan looked over awkwardly at the other students it only seemed his fellow Ravenclaw Ruthie, as well as the Gryffindor Alan, seemed to acknowledge his presence. Wanting to stay a little longer with the group he stomach growled as the young lad had skipped supper the night before to catch up with his homework. Seeing an empty spot by the Ravenclaw table, Alan wanted to take immediately before several students decide to make it.

Not wanting to seem impolite he looked over towards Ruthie who was also making her way back towards the Ravenclaw table. Waving Ruthie goodbye, The young lad said in a soft tone "See ya back in the common room Ruthie." Before turning to leave, Alan stared at Alan Vanes offering a smile and offered a nod "Well, I'll be seeing you now...maybe we can meet somewhere less public, yeah?" In the back of the Ravenclaws mind he was being applauded "Well done Al, now gets some grub we'll think about if this Alan wants to be friends or not". Turning on his heel, Alan waved, stumbling on his feet almost tripping as he turned his head to look back at Alan Vanes, causing his cheeks to become red calling out "Uh-yeah bye!"

Readjusting his uniform and rucksack, Alan made his way to the empty space at the Ravenclaw and began digging into the many delicious foods that surrounded the table.

Alan Noble has left the thread in a hurried fashion as the boy was really hungry

Apologies for how short this post is

The third year just smiled nervously. Suddenly there had been a lot of people and he was not quite sure whether he liked the sudden attention. He was therefore quite happy with the fact that they began to address one another instead of talking to him much. That was he could lean back and relax from the pressure of talking to people he was not acquainted to.

He nodded as some of them took their leave, one of them was Ruthie; a girl that he knew from his club. He did not even know she had been at the tea party the day before. Clearly he had missed a lot of what happened, since his attention had been too focused on the drama happening around him that day, but he was sure that no one could quite judge him for that. The drama had been quite weird and Alan still had no idea how it happened, but people had gotten hurt, which was awful and something Alan could not forgive easily.

Alan nodded at the other boy, who shared his own name. "I w-would love that!", he said in agreement, before he watched the boy disappear, smiling slightly at him as he did. He turned to Jake and offered him a smile. "Wanna go g-grab some food as well?", he wondered, tilting his head slightly as he motioned to the Gryffindor table.