#nox.event032

“listen, i’m not really meant to give my opinion, but between you and me...” and the rest of the malfoy’s guests, though no one was really paying them much attention ; luca had dropped her voice a couple of octaves, but she needn’t have bothered. everyone was so caught up in their inane conversations ( or just plain giddy off of scoring an invitation to the event of the year ) that they weren’t exactly taking mind of a lowly serving girl taking time out of her busy schedule to impart some simple wisdom, “i’d go with the moon glow cocktail over the others. the rocket fuel is all spirits, and if you want to be able to remember your night at all, you don’t wanna be downing any of those.” 

in  truth,  she’s  just  as  surprised  about  percy’s  presence  as  she  is  her  OWN,  but  that  doesn’t  make  her  any  less  relieved  to  see  a  friendly  familiar  face  after  dodging  so  many  members  of  the  upper  echelon,  since  arrival.  the  second  that  the  image  of  him  stuck  in  a  corner  registers,  ginny  makes  a  beeline  for  him,  snagging  two  flutes  of  champagne  from  an  overworked  server  &  carrying  them  the  rest  of  the  way  with  the  same  care  she  would  precious  cargo.  she  weaves  through  the  crowd  with  a  remarkable  sort  of  elegance  (  all  considered  )  and  emerges  at  his  elbow,  which  she  gives  an  intentional  sort  of  jostle  to  announce  her  appearance.  “  i  hope  you’ve  been  pacing  yourself,  ”  she  says,  awfully  concerned  about  such  a  thing  for  someone  who  immediately  hands  over  the  second  glass  and  takes  a  dainty  sip  from  her  own.  she’s  a  gossipy  little  madam,  when  she  wants  to  be  ;  voice  drops  several  octaves  as,  redhead  to  redhead,  she  ducks  all  that  much  closer  to  him  and  mutters,  “  mood’s  tanked  a  bit  in  here  since  i  popped  out  to  the  little  girls  room.  don’t  tell  me  somebody  corked  it  -  [  gasp  ]  we’ve  reached  the  ritual  sacrifice  portion  of  the  evening,  haven’t  we  ?  ”

“  miss  weiss,  ”  voice  colored  by  how  pleasant  a  surprise  marietta  finds  this  particular  run  in  to  be,  her  previously  gloomy  expression  TRANSFORMS  as  she  twists  around  to  face  her  boss.  she  had  wanted  to  come  here  ;  no  point  pretending  otherwise  when  everything  about  her  screamed  of  that  need  to  be  important.  she  had  leapt  at  the  chance  to  hang  off  some  poor  schmuck’s  arm  because  an  invite  from  the  malfoy  family  was  gold  dust,  to  certain  people,  and  that  definitely  included  her  -  but  no  one  had  prepared  her  for  how  much  of  a  bore  her  date  would  be  once  the  excitement  of  it  all  had  started  to  wear  off.  marietta  had  snuck  off  around  the  time  the  whispers  had  started  to  circulate  the  ballroom  &  because  she’d  been  so  busy  trying  to  ingratiate  herself  with  certain  figures,  she  had  missed  out  on  all  the  fun  of  theorising  about  where  their  hosts  had  disappeared  to  with  all  her  fellow  guests.  she  wasn’t  actually  HAVING  fun  now  that  she  had  traded  any  possibility  of  it  for  currying  favor,  but  evelyn  weiss  provided  a  brief  reprieve  from  much  the  same  whether  she  wanted  to  (  or  not  ).  “  i  didn’t  know  that  you  were  friendly  with  the  malfoy’s,  ”  she  assumes,  which  is  sort  of  ignorant  of  her,  but  marietta  had  never  claimed  to  know  the  perfect  way  to  conduct  herself  in  these  situations,  “  it’s  so  strange  to  see  you  outside  of  obliviation  headquarters.  you  must  love  having  the  night  off.  ”

so,  this  isn’t  exactly  how  luca  had  envisioned  spending  her  fifteen  minutes,  but  then  again  ...  she  hadn’t  really  been  getting  her  hopes  up  about  how  she  could  spend  it  in  the  first  place,  so  maybe  anything  is  better  than  nothing.  watching  it  unfold  in  real  time  had  been  bad  enough,  but  she  had  been  quick  to  whisk  percy  away  from  the  ballroom  floor  when  the  disgusted  gasps  of  stuffy  purebloods  caught  in  a  splash  zone  had  turned  into  vicious  whispers,  just  in  case.  everything  was  going  tit’s  up,  but  the  last  thing  she  wanted  was  to  be  stuck  working  this  event  without  someone  familiar  to  exchange  a  sidelong  look  to  (  or  spend  her  few  breaks  with  ),  if  the  malfoy’s  were  called  on  to  eject  him  early  -  especially  when  it  didn’t  look  as  if  it  had  really  been  his  fault.  her  thought  process  as  she  dips  for  her  break  five  minutes  early  and  leads  him  by  the  wrist  to  the  bustling  white  marble  kitchen  is  that  the  offended  parties  will  have  forgotten  all  about  him  and  returned  to  the  other  hot  gossip  of  the  night  by  the  time  he  makes  his  much  drier  return,  though  ...  she  supposes  only  time  will  tell.  “  here,  ”  there’s  probably  a  spell  that’d  work  faster  than  the  fancy  towel  she  hands  over  to  him,  but  luca  doesn’t  remember  it,  so  he’ll  just  HAVE  to  make  do  with  what  she  can  provide,  “  so  ...  your  sister  seems  fun.  have  you  ever  thought  about  maybe  setting  her  up  with  my  brother  ?  they’ve  definitely  got  plenty  in  common  ...  ”

it’s ... tough for him to relent. arturo expects a kind of excellence from the aurors that work underneath him. he always has, but he’s tougher on them, at times like these ; it’s hard not to be overly conscious of the microscope that the entire department is under when it comes to a more high profile case, and it’s his job to think about how everything looks to the outside world. he’s the one that’s meant to ensure everything runs smoothly, that there are no ruinous fuck ups that affect the public image of the investigation, at any point. his personal relationships, the sympathy he might just have for the greener aurors who are so far inexperienced when it comes to things like this ... he sets all that aside, and he’s usually pretty good at it. the persona that jack has dubbed a hard ass has become so ingrained in who he is that arturo has near forgotten what it feels like to be on the other side of it or thrown for a loop by what he finds, but when it comes to gracie ...- well, that harrowed look on her face tells him everything he needs to know, and when he takes her under the elbow and steers her out of the room, his grip is iron clad. to an outsider of the strange kind of duo they comprise of, it looks for all the world as if lead investigator arturo de la rosa has already lost his patience with the young auror taken under his wing. the door out to the side alley closes behind them and inside, everyone waits for the roar of get your shit together they know is coming - except it doesn’t. instead ... “you can’t be here,” comes gruff assertion, stating the fact they BOTH already know as plain as day, “go home, grace. you’re not on this case.” 

“i’m really glad you convinced me to come,” benedict smiled as he held out a champagne flute for andie. had she not found the invitation that’d be sent to the store and subsequently pestered him to bring her as a plus one, he wouldn’t have come. hell, he probably would’ve forgotten about the ball entirely. but he was truly glad she’d found the invitation - he was enjoying himself. 

“can i have this dance?” ian asked with a smile as he stepped in front of mikaela, his hand outstretched and a smile on his face. it was bold. and it was most definitely a risk but he’d never been known for his decision making.