The Main Hall & Ballroom

She blushed when the boy gave her a compliment. He was right, tonight she wasn't Emilia Delacroix, tonight, no one knew who she was, but deep down, she was Princess Emilia of Lyons. She offered a smile and even a laugh at his laugh phrase. He was a dramatic one, she could tell but it was good drama, not bad and she liked that. She had to admit, his costume, as well as the other girl's costume, was pretty amazing looking. At the time, she hadn't thought to tie her dress into any sort of costume, but the more she thought about it, the more she wished she would have.

When the young girl, Hailey, entered after her in the green dress, she felt sort of relieved as it seemed she just went with the whole masquerade thing as well as opposed to tying it in with a costume. She smiled as she saw the girl who welcomed her to Hufflepuff enter and then Finley entered. He was with a girl she hadn't seen, but she offered him a smile anyways, not caring whether he saw it or not. She was just glad to have seen him again. The sight of the meaner girl from Florean's made her turn away. She didn't want to frown and chance the girl seeing her, she didn't need confrontation or an enemy, but she wasn't fond of her.

As the Hufflepuff boy came back into her view, she smiled once more. "I'm Emilia," she curtsied as she introduced herself. She could have just offered him a handshake, but in her attire, it felt more proper to be elegant and formal.

Dan watched as more people entered, none of them familiar. It seemed some were going with simple masquerade attire of formal-wear with a mask. There was one girl in a black dress that--he assumed--she purchased for the torn look to the skirt, given the rather tangled mess of hair on one side of her head. He'd have to find out what she intended to be, but it would be impolite to simply abandon his current conversation companion to ask a single question.

The only other boy in the room seemed a bit flustered by the girl in what was obviously supposed to be a devil costume given the red and black schematic and the rather obvious, pointed tail sticking out the bottom of her dress. It was a fabulous outfit, to be sure, and Dan briefly contemplated approaching her at some point in the night to compliment her on her genius portrayal of a classic and often over-done persona.

Daniel turned back to face the girl in time for her to curtsy and introduce herself. He grinned widely and executed a dramatic bow, twirling his right hand in the air and folding his other behind his back as he folded himself at the waist. With a brief press of his lips to the knuckles of her left hand, he rose. "Pleasure to meet you, Emilia," he drawled. "Daniel, at your service." He threw in a sassy wink for good measure.

Naomi wasn't sure exactly how, but somehow she'd actually persuaded Finley to go to the ball. Which was fortunate, because she would have still gone, but it probably wouldn't have been any fun by herself. Besides, Finley's Little John outfit was better than her Robin Hood one, which was homemade, so people might actually be able to recognize them.

When Finley admitted that it wasn't so bad, Naomi grinned at him in return. "See? I told you so. I'm glad you agreed to come with me." The ball really was very impressive, with decorations everywhere and plenty of activities.

Finley was just opening his mouth to say something when he was cut off by somebody else, somebody he called Madison. So this is Madison Bishop, Naomi thought to herself, watching the exchange through narrowed eyes. However, when Madison asked if they were dating, Naomi's eyes widened.

After hearing Finley stumble through an explanation, obviously embarrassed, Naomi decided to actually buck up and join the conversation. "Finley and I are best friends and probably always will be," she said, careful to make her voice loud enough to hear over the music. It felt like shouting to the quiet girl. "As for me being too pretty, I guess that's subjective, but that's not what I think. We just work better a friends."

When Madison asked for drinks immediately afterward and Finley ran off to get them, something clicked in Naomi's head and she blurted, "You like him!" before gasping and clapping her hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say that out loud, but as she lowered her hand, she knew she couldn't take it back, so she might as well go forward. "You like him... don't you?"

When Madison brought up sleeping in Finley's bed, Naomi blushed. "It wasn't like that, if that's what you're thinking. I had a... nightmare, and I went to talk to him about it. He asked me to stay to comfort me." She shrugged. "It's as simple as that." Although I'd like to know who told you that, she thought to herself. And how far that rumor's spread. The school was like a sieve, and everyone was hungry for gossip, so probably pretty far.

Rumors like that didn't really bother Naomi. She knew people would always believe them, no matter what the truth was. What concerned her more was the attention in general that was sure to be paid to her and Finley, something neither of them liked.

"And you didn't really answer my question," Naomi added. Despite Madison's casual approach of the topic, she couldn't help but feel that there was something... more behind her questions. Call it Seer's intuition, but Naomi felt that the situation was more than it appeared.

Almost as soon as Naomi began to explain herself, Madison held in a smirk. It was clear that what she was being told was true. Or, rather, almost true - she slightly doubted the reasoning given by the witch (she hesitated before saying the word 'nightmare', which either meant that Naomi was embarrassed or hiding something) but other than that, it appeared to be the truth. Finley was most definitely the kind to comfort a friend in need, and she immediately took hold of that information and stored it away for possible use in the future.

Now that she knew the truth, Maddie added a task to her to do list - shut down the rumour. While she herself needed answers, she let it carry out, so that she could get any and all information pertaining to it, but since she had gotten things from the horse's mouth, there was no longer need for this. The last thing she wanted was for Finley to get hurt, and if he cared about his friends that much, then if Naomi was upset, by association, it would also affect her toy.

"I wasn't thinking anything," she said with a innocent smile, and shrugged a little. "It was just something I heard in passing. I'm sure it was as innocent as you say." She made sure to keep any patronizing tones out of her sentences, instead conveying childish naivety, something that she was good at pretending to have. Almost as an afterthought, she carefully added, "I'm sorry if I brought up something hurtful. I didn't mean it like that."

Tilting her head slightly as Naomi more or less instructed her to answer her previous questions, Maddie forced a friendly smile onto her face. Actually, I did answer your question. You didn't really listen, did you? she thought. If it had been any other person... But Naomi was Finley's best friend. "Like I said earlier, I like him in the way you like him - as a friend." She paused, shrugged again, and added, "Less, probably. You're best friends and we're just friends."

Alberi was not in a huge hurry to come to this 'party' or whatever it was. He never was interested enough to remember. But when he learned that it was, in fact, that there would be things like flying pumpkins and other stuff, he was interested. He could learn more about magic here, what advanced magic he himself could be doing when he is old enough to graduate and start a job. It surely would give him a good enough of a motivation to learn, at least.

After days of wondering what to go as, while still making it available to wear a suit, he thought of it. He would go a serpent. It was ironic, him being a so called 'lion' yet dressing up as the symbol of the revile house - a snake. He had planned it all out for a few hours. After sending an owl to his mother about what he wants and receiving his suit and mask, he was ready.

As for his suit, it was well made, at least for what they can buy. It was green, though it switched between two shades of green, leaving a slightly scaly look. Underneath he had put a beige shirt, along with green tie. Everything went great with the other. His shoes were his old black formal shoes though, as they could not afford more from this. He wore the suit open, as his shirt was supposed to be the stomach of the snake and it usually didn't have a connection with the rest.

As for his mask, he was pretty glad with it. It didn't cover his whole face, which allowed him to breath normally. It normally had a small red tongue put he cut it off, as it annoyed him. The mask was a dark green, matching one of the colours from his suit, the one which could be seen as the main one. It had lines on it, showing where the snakes snout/nose is, eyes. It also had small fangs at the bottom of the mouth, which Alberi actually liked and kept.

Soon enough he was ready and walked towards the Great Hall. He watched how the corridors were made. For once he decided not be an arrogant genius and actually admired the work that the others had put through this. He was pretty impressed. Maybe one day he could do it as well... He walked into the Great Hall and looked around. That was a pretty good job. He noticed a few groups of people around. Instead of going to them, he walked to a table, sat down and took out the book he had brought along with him. He was not intending to socialize today.