Never Be Enough (Open)

Subject: Never Be Enough (Open) Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:35 pm

They had been dancing.

Or, at least Mimosa had been dancing, Nikolai had still been trying to work out his feet which didn't really work well when being hindered by the witch who was much shorter than he was pulling on him a little too much in that moment to allow him to stand properly. Stooped, that was what Nikolai had been and Mimosa had been dancing.

He'd gotten the first dance with Mimosa, and he could feel the jealousy oozing off of the other boys who had wanted to dance with the Harrington-Clement princess. For the smallest of moments, Nikolai had felt on top of the world. Even if he felt remarkably awkward in that moment, and didn't wish to be at the Ball, Nikolai was winning. He had felt alive.

And then it had happened.

Jacques Clement had arrived.

Mimosa hadn't given him a second thought in that moment, easily removing herself from his hold and running over to her Jacques. Had the heat in his cheeks and thundering heart from embarrassment not been so loud, he would probably have heard the witch squealing the Frenchman's name in that moment, but instead he'd just watched numbly as she was scooped up in the man's arms, spun gracefully before being placed gently back on the floor. He'd seen the smiles growing on both Mimosa and her Jacques' lips and been only a fly on the wall as the Clement heir presented Mimosa with yet another gift.

Jacques' lips had been moving in that moment, a question only Mimosa could probably hear as he held out the corsage made of dahlias, lined with diamonds for the young witch to wear on her wrist. Whatever the question had been, Mimosa had nodded eagerly in that moment to the kneeling Jacques Clement, before throwing her arms around him happily.

Nikolai hadn't managed to stomach anymore as he promptly left stage right, pushing through the drapes of the marquee and heading out of the overcrowded tent. Outside, some students had already made their way out on to the ice with the skates that had been provided, but Nikolai paid them no mind, instead heading around to the pier. But even as he grew closer to the pier, Nikolai noted how the Professors had not left his refuge be, and there instead it was beautifully lit so that couples could look out over the lake.

Sighing to himself, Nikolai turned back, heading to the back of the tent where nobody was likely to come and find him and he sat down on the edge of the lake, looking out across it without really seeing anything.

Stupid Mimosa, with her stupid Jacques.

They always ruined everything he had planned out with their stupid relationship that didn't even make sense to anyone! Why couldn't her Jacques just stay away for one evening so that he could show Ji Hyun that he was going to best him in this competition? But no, stupid Jacques Clement and his stupid perfections were always going to ruin everything because Mimosa would always go running to her Jacques!

Resting his head in his hands, Nikolai let out a deep sigh, trying to work out what to do now.

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Apollonia had known before Mimosa, quite probably, that Jacques Clement had arrived at the ball - the sudden rush of politicians, professors and sponsors told her that much at least. She would've approached the male herself had it not been for the fact that she wasn't sure that he would actually remember her, she had been a firsty after all and no first-year made lasting impressions on seventh years.

Brown eyes cooly watched as Mimosa detangled herself from Nikolai and practically shot across the dance floor to jump into Jacques' arms, leaving Nikolai bereft in the middle of the dance floor and the angry flush on his cheeks, for it certainly wasn't one of embarrassment, made Apollonia shake her head; really, Mimosa saw no-one but Jacques when the Clement Heir was in the room. Not that she could blame the younger witch, the man was practically her brother really.

Flicking her eyes back to where Mimosa and Jacques were chattering away in French, Apollonia gifted the handful of girls she had been standing by and talking with an apologetic smile before she practically floated out of the marquee and followed after Nikolai though she did give him the chance to get his thoughts sorted before she announced her presence.

Clearing her throat the beautiful Greek witch approached Nikolai though she didn't dare sit down, her dress was a tad too short for that, certainly too white and she wasn't wearing tights either. Instead, she crouched beside him, tucking her dress in underneath her bum to cover it before she spoke up.

"How about that dance you owe me, hmm?" She stared out across the lake, eyes focused on the skating students just a bit further away from them. She wasn't going to tell Nikolai false platitudes and words, she didn't doubt that he wouldn't welcome them.

If it had been her in his shoes she wouldn't have wanted false platitudes and words either. He was hurt, rightfully so, and he probably wouldn't welcome anyone questioning him about how he was doing and all that stuff.

Subject: Re: Never Be Enough (Open) Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:41 am

From Nikolai's point just outside the marquee he could still hear the music, he could still hear the peels of laughter that stuck out against the sound of the music, he could hear the underlying rumble of chatter, but none of it appealed to him to go back. Mimosa had been so thoroughly rude in the manner in which she'd left him, it was embarrassing. In front of everyone! Did the girl even think for a second before she did these things to him?

Probably not, that would involve her having a brain.

Something he knew she definitely did not.

Scowling deeply at the ice covering the Squid's habitat -- honestly how had his dad let that be a thing? -- the Slytherin didn't hear the person approaching his refuge. After all, who was going to come here, there was nothing here, he was supposed to be alone until he decided what he wanted to do with himself. So, when someone spoke out to him through the dying light, the boy jumped quite violently as he managed something of a half turn towards the source of the noise.

Apollonia.

The anger at Mimosa fizzled out in that moment, his eyes dropping away from Apollonia and out to the lake again. For a moment, he didn't speak, simply trying to compose himself from both the fright the older Slytherin had given him, and from the whole saga with Mimosa. Collecting himself, Nikolai looked across at Apollonia.

"I don't want to go back in there yet. Everyone's probably still laughing at me because Mimosa left mid-dance." He told the older Slytherin, it wasn't overly fair on Apollonia, he knew that, but she would surely understand that the last thing he wanted was to walk right back in to the party he'd just been made look stupid in. "I will, though, dance with you I mean. Just... not yet." He summarised, looking back out across the lake with something of a brooding look upon his features.

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The Greek witch considered the boy next to her, eyes narrowed in thought; she liked Mimosa quite a bit, there was no denying that, but she really should've politely excused herself from Nikolai instead of just rudely detangling herself from him. Shaking her head, Apollonia tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear.

"No-one was laughing at you," Apollonia reassured the third year, truthfully they all were too enamoured with Jacques Clement to see anything happening in the middle of the dance floor and those that had noticed had just shaken their heads and went back to dances. "And well... when it comes to Jacques Clement there is no doubt that Mimosa would drop everything she was doing just to bask in his presence." She quipped, eyes shining in amusement; she could just see Jacques coming to Hogwarts in the middle of the day when Mimosa was in a lesson or in training and the younger girl just stopping what she was doing to rush to the older boy.

Sighing softly, Apollonia shuffled around a bit so that she was actually facing Nikolai, though she was mostly looking at his profile; watching the other, she couldn't help but frown at the brooding look on his face. Abruptly standing up, she held her hand out to the third year.

"Come." She wiggled her fingers. "You can escort me through the booths set up around. We can grab some butterbeer to drink and share food and then we can go and have a dance or get onto the ice." She firmly, if politely, said, arching a brow as she stared down at the younger Slytherin.

Subject: Re: Never Be Enough (Open) Sun Apr 07, 2019 8:14 am

The reassurance that Apollonia tried to give did nothing to ease Nikolai's worries. How did she know nobody had laughed? She most certainly couldn't know that, because Nikolai knew that there would be a minimum of one person who would have laughed, namely Ji Hyun, but Nikolai was sure other people would have laughed at him too. Being left mid-dance by one of the most popular girls in the school was never going to go unmissed, and Apollonia was just doing that annoying thing adults did to try to soothe him.

It wasn't working.

Nor was the way she spoke about Mimosa dropping anything to go to her Jacques. As if that needed to be spoke aloud for Nikolai to know that. That was the problem, wasn't it? Mimosa had just dropped him for her Jacques, and that was truthfully not acceptable to the young Slytherin who remained unmoved by Apollonia's words.

It was as Apollonia moved to stand up, though, that Nikolai's inherent need to not be left for a second time in one evening kicked in. So upon the insistence that he would take her to get Butterbeer, and then they would have the dance he'd promised, Nikolai knew he had little in the way of argument for staying put. Letting out a soft sigh, Nikolai used her hand to help himself back to his feet, pausing only to dust off his trousers where he'd sat down, before falling in to step with the witch in search of Butterbeer.

For a short while, Nikolai was quiet, still not happy with the evening, and still trying to figure out for himself what was going on. It bothered him greatly, not knowing the answer to the question that plagued him each time he saw Mimosa with her Jacques, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't work out the answer to his question. So, deciding to just take the plunge, Nikolai looked across to the older witch as they walked, before posing his question.

"What is it, apart from an abundance of wealth, that Jacques has that I don't?" Nikolai asked, his brow still furrowed because he wasn't sure it was the right question to ask Apollonia, but it was going to bother him until he got his answer, and if he wanted to enjoy tonight, he needed to have something of an answer to work with.

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The Greek witch would've loved to continue arguing her point that no-one had laughed at Nikolai when Mimosa left him mid-dance but she knew it was a moot point. She had left soon after Nikolai after all and for all, she knew they could've all burst into chatter and giggles as soon as she was out of ear-shot. Sometimes she wondered why people took pleasure out of such things, it was bullying at its worst and Apollonia didn't like bullies.

Gifting Nikolai with a soft smile as he finally stood up from the ground, the fifth year Slytherin swished around and started a trek towards the countless of booths around the grounds and some even in the castle. She had plans and nothing was going to derail those plans. She wanted that dance with Nikolai and well, seeing as Mimosa had just up and left him for Jacques, Apollonia was going to take the chance to walk around the booths with someone she actually liked and have that dance she had been promised.

The silence between them was a bit stifling, and a bit uncomfortable if Apollonia were to say so, but the Greek beauty knew that her companion needed the chance to figure out his own thoughts and try to sort them out. Clearly, something was bothering him but Apollonia wouldn't pry; not her place for one and for another if Nikolai required her input he would ask and not even seconds after she thought that Nikolai went and asked her a most peculiar question that she wasn't sure she'd be able to answer.

"What is it, apart from an abundance of wealth, that Jacques has that I don't?"

A highly loaded question that made Apollonia pause and give Nikolai a very long stare, brown eyes narrowed at the third year. This is probably the time where a white lie would be preferable but if Apollonia knew anything about Nikolai it was that he prefered honesty to lies, even ones that would make him happy. She didn't want to hurt him but no matter how she thought on the answer she didn't doubt that he'd be hurt either way.

Honesty it was then.

"I can certainly make a list of what Jacques has that all the guys at Hogwarts don't have... but I don't think that is the actual answer you want..." She side-eyed him before sighing.

"In Mimosa's eyes," Apollonia started, emphasizing the small third year's name. "There is no competition for Jacques. She could have hundreds of guys vying for her attention, and she certainly does, but to Mimosa, there is no-else but Jacques." She sighed and walked around to face Nikolai, staring up at the taller male. "Yes Jacques has the wealth, he certainly has the looks but truthfully, is he as amazing as Mimosa makes him out to be? I don't think so, right now she's enchanted with him, looking at him through rose-coloured glasses."

"What I do think though, Nikolai Kessler," Apollonia leaned towards him and gifted him with a genuinely sweet smile. "Is that you are an amazing wizard yourself who doesn't need wealth to get what he wants. You may not have his wealth but really, what good use is money in the grand scheme of things? Can it buy you happiness? Certainly not." She tilted her head up and pressed a a soft kiss onto Nikolai's cheek. "To me, you're perfect just the way you are. There's no need to compare yourself to anyone else. If everyone compared themselves to someone don't you think that we'd all be living miserable lives?"

Subject: Re: Never Be Enough (Open) Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:05 am

The question had left Nikolai's lips without too much more thought about it, and even as he'd spoken the words, Nikolai wasn't sure of the question. He knew, of course, that he couldn't withdraw the question now it was out there, he could ask Apollonia to ignore it, but now he'd done that much, he found he did want the answer to the question.

The first part of Apollonia's answer did not help in the slightest, though. Her notion of Jacques Clement being better than all of the guys in the school was one that did not settle well for the Slytherin as they walked, making him feel much less certain of things. The fact there was a list of things that the Frenchman had was not something that helped to reassure the younger male.

So he waited, knowing Apollonia wasn't done as she sighed softly beside him.

The notion of Mimosa being enchanted by Jacques Clement, and only seeing him through rose tinted glasses was something that maybe softened things a little bit. But, didn't all the girls like Jacques Clement? They all seemed to get giggly when the Slytherin Alumni was back at the school, and would flock around Mimosa to get the attention of Jacques for as much time as possible. So, surely it wasn't just Mimosa being too stupid to realise that he wasn't all that. Nikolai's frown only deepened, but still he didn't speak, because Apollonia's words weren't making much sense, truthfully. She was trying, Nikolai knew that, but he didn't completely understand the logic of it only being Mimosa.

But as Apollonia's point moved towards him not needing money to be happy, the younger Slytherin knew that the witch was only being nice. Of course he needed money to be happy. Without money he would not be able to study past Hogwarts, without money he would not be able to travel the world in order to help the animals he had come to care for from his books, and without money, he would never be able to buy all the things in life that he wanted. Whoever thought that money couldn't buy you happiness -- no matter how temporary -- was fooled by ideals.

Nikolai would have worked to announce his own view on these matters, but for the second time this month, Apollonia leaned forth and pressed a kiss to his cheek, easily short circuiting the young boy's brain from its current thought path. The boy's cheeks warmed through with a red tint in them, and for a moment, he struggled to remember what they had been talking about a few moments more as he replayed how the soft touch of her lips had felt on his cheek, leaving a light tingling sensation running down his spine instead.

"To me, you're perfect just the way you are. There's no need to compare yourself to anyone else. If everyone compared themselves to someone don't you think that we'd all be living miserable lives?"

"Actually," Nikolai managed a moment later, regaining his brain from the brief pause it had experienced. "I think that if we don't compare ourselves to others, we're never going to strive to be better than our current self." The fourteen year old countered, giving a small shrug of his shoulders as they rounded upon the food table. "But, I guess if you over do it, you would be miserable." He finalised, picking up a Scotch Egg and cramming it in his mouth whole before trying to chew through it.

Next, the boy quickly took up one of the glasses of pumpkin juice, and scanned the rest of the food on offer. Finding pork pies in abundance, Nikolai concentrated his attention on those for a while, before turning back to the witch beside him. "You should eat some, it's good. Not to mention it's well past usual dining times." He insisted, popping another quarter of pork pie in his mouth and chewing it thoughtfully.

"Are you going to partake in any of the events?"

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