#bitingdownevent

Dominique had found herself unusually anxious when she arrived at her Uncle Percy’s fundraiser. She had little to no interest in the actual politics but she had liked the idea of getting out and being social and being at a party for the first time in forever. Now she was here she wasn’t so sure that this was a good idea. The last party she had been to had been the night - well, she wasn’t thinking about that now. She had told herself she was going to have fun, so she was going to have fun. 

The blonde headed straight for the drinks table, snatching a glass of champagne and looking around for someone who could distract her. She couldn’t think about the fact that there were so many strangers here and any one of them could be the masked man. She had family here. She was safe. She needed to feel safe.

Dom almost downed her first glass of champagne quickly reaching for another before she caught someone looking.

“I’m thirsty,” she explained. “You want one?” She quickly grabbed another glass shoving it into their hands. 

“We’re going to have a fun night,” she insisted, “it’s going to be good. I’m going to drink and eat and ignore all the boring speeches. In fact, I’m going to get drunk...” she took a large gulp of her drink before continuing “- and make out with a stranger in a cloak room.”

It was fair to say that pettiness was second nature to Fred at this point in life. Every action he took was based on some level of spite he harvested in his soul. He did not take well to the disaster that took place between his aunt and uncle which promptly overshadowed all the hard work his father had went through to prepare the winter wonderland. Really, it seemed like his relatives had no consideration. Poor grandma Molly was beside herself on Christmas day. 

When he received the invitation to his dear uncles poncy fancy dinner, he just new it would be a tedious event. Who else could change that but him. Fred had went out of his way to purchase the strongest booze he could get his hands on and a pinata. If said pinata held a striking resemblance to his uncle Percy then it was merely a coincidence. He considered it a fair pay back for the trouble that was caused.

It was easy enough to get these things into the party, Fred had been smuggling items into places since he was thirteen. All it took was some expanding and weightless charms on his over sized coat and sneaking into the venue to hide the pinata. Suits and dress robes were not his style and he refused point blank to wear the ones his parents had brought him two days prior. Instead, he stuck on a pink knit sweater and a clashing yellow bandanna that held back his curly hair. The look his father gave him earlier was full of amusement and the red haired man had given him a set of rounded specks that could put Uncle Harry’s to shame. George had said they keep your vision from blurring with a all to knowing look at his son. Fred had grinned at him and made his way to the sidelines of the hall as more people began to arrive.

Fred could feel the eyes of someone watching him as he rifled through his coat pocket for a bottle of something strong. He finally spoke when his hand pulled out the bottle of tequila

“This is going to be a dull night” Fred shook the bottle in the persons direction with a sly smile, “Care to join me?” 

Walking into the ballroom, Lily grimaced at the throng of people surrounding her. There were many places one would expect to see Lilly Potter, a gala was not one of them. An event like this represented everything she disliked about wizarding society: pompous rich people, fake charity, and of course the expectation to follow strict manners. This was the last place in the world she wanted to be. In fact, Lily would rather single handedly fight a nesting Norwegian Ridgeback then get dolled up and pretend to be nice.

But her father was unveiling another statue and her mother had reminded her over the floo this afternoon that her attendance was mandatory. So here Lily stood in a crowd of strangers she vaguely remembered in a too tight dress and uncomfortable heels suppressing the urge to conjuror a broomstick and fly off the balcony.

Slowly Lily made her way to an empty table and sat. “Well if I am here, I might as well have fun,” she said to herself. Slyly she pointed her wand at a nearby table and whispered a charm. She waited with anticipation as two men in conversation made their way for the table. The second the men sat in their seats, every word they spoke came out in German! Lily had to cover her mouth to suppress her laughter at the sight of the men’s confused faces. After a few attempts at speaking English and failing, the men scurried away from the table. (Their ability to speak German faded as they left.)