Wardrobe Malfunction

[Thom Pettigrew]

The fact of his having already worn this particular costume once this week did not make it any more comfortable the second time. Thom could take solace, at least, in the fact that he looked rather impressive with the lion skin draped around his head and shoulders, but it was too hot and too heavy to allow him to move around as freely and energetically as he typically did at parties. At the Wilde's safari-themed ball, he'd ended up wearing it draped over his shoulders like a cloak halfway through the night, but he was determined to make a better show of it tonight, and he'd left it all in place, so far.

The problem now was that it was also itchy, and Thom was beginning to think that lion skins were far more suited to lions--or perhaps to rugs. But if he just forded through tonight without giving up on the whole thing, he could send this one off to the taxidermy afterlife and make sounder decisions for his future Halloween costumes.

He would have liked to have thrown a Halloween ball himself, he reflected as he surveyed the party's setting and decor. Of course, Hannah's pregnancy would make hosting anything impossible over the next two months--and he wasn't trying to push his luck now, because he was determined not to let the arrival of another child delay or cancel his annual Christmas party, and he thought his chances of being able to pull that off without complaint or argument from his wife were much higher if he minded his p's and q's in the meantime regarding her health.

Still, this was a grand party. Roberto Devine was more or less a colleague in the world of Quidditch--or perhaps a rival, though they'd always been friendly--and his fiancee was throwing exciting parties for the whole of wizarding England. Hannah had had to struggle against her family's reputation from day one, and Thom didn't hold that against her, but it did mean that the dynamic was... well, different. Hannah simply didn't host parties like this.

There was no use thinking like that, though, because he had made his choice--he didn't remember making it, but he had. He'd made his bed and was lying in it now, and he was happy--wasn't he?

Thom went for another glass of champagne. He was feeling a bit restless and wanted to find someone to dance with, but remembered from the previous ball how difficult the lion's skin made it to dance properly. Maybe if he waited for a sufficiently slow song, he'd be able to manage it--but in the meantime, he could find a likely partner.

His standards for dance partners were not particularly high, so when he saw a nearby lady walk by, dragging a bit of her tulle that had dipped low from around her waist as she'd walked, he seized the opportunity presented to him. "Excuse me, miss," he said to catch her attention as she approached. "I think a bit of your dress is coming apart--and I'd hate for someone to step on it and ruin your costume," he said, gesturing to the shimmery fabric around her waist. He wasn't really sure how it was attached, and perhaps it was supposed to be draping down to the floor the way it was, but he didn't think so--and it seemed to him that if it was tied a bit tighter at the front, perhaps it wouldn't.

"May I?" he asked, a bit boldly. Who had time to be coy at a costume party?

@'Lily Huddleston' @'Clarissa Cosgrove'

  

[Lily Huddleston]

Lily had long noted an inclination on Miss Dippets part to be mildly inclusive when it came to her parties and that suited Lily just fine. She couldn't remember the other woman from school very much - they had been a year apart and in different houses - but the former Gryffindor had definitely made a name for herself. That was something that the Slytherin graduate could appreciate.

She was very much enjoying her time so far, the enchantment on her dress was working fine and she was feeling particularly pretty tonight. She was walking by a man dressed as a lion when he caught her attention with his words. Lily glanced back and gasped a little when she saw that a bit of her tulle had somehow come loose. Probably during one fo the more energetic dances of the night.

The man was offering help and Lily naively decided to accept it, not really knowing what he planned to do about it but expecting a spell or something. "By all means, please. How embarrassing, I hope it wasn't that way for too long," Lily said. She wouldn't be surprised if it had been, something always seemed to go sideways when it came to her things.

  

[Thom Pettigrew]

"I couldn't say," Thom admitted. He hadn't been watching her very long before he'd caught her attention. He wouldn't have really said he was watching her at all, since he hadn't even spared her a glance until she'd crossed his path. They were talking now, though, so none of that really seemed to matter. Snatching the hanging bit of tulle between his fingers as he moved to stand in front of her, Thom looked over the woman. The dress was certainly a piece of work, but he wasn't sure from a casual glance what she was supposed to be. Blue and white shimmers could have been something to do with the sky, but the way the pattern was moving seemed to suggest water to him.

"Are you a river?" he asked, turning his attention down to her waist. He had to step in a bit closer to accommodate someone walking behind him, which put them as close as dance partners while he tied the tulle in place. It was the sort of situation that might make a nice girl blush, but it was also certainly defensible to the casual observer. He was just helping fix her costume, after all.

  

[Lily Huddleston]

Lily allowed the man to give his assistance before smiling at his question of whether she was a river. "Close," she said before falling silent with a blush at his proximity. She had always been a bit of a flirt but even this was a bit much for her. It almost immediately bounced out of her mind though because he was just being kindly and helping her.

"I'm a water nymph," she said, a bit of mischief in her tone. "Dancing about lakes and causing ripples."

  

[Thom Pettigrew]

"Very creative," Thom said with an appreciative nod. He tended to go for the more literal costumes himself, as was probably evident in his attire tonight. There was hardly anything less subtle than wearing an actual lion's skin around the ballroom. He had always had a flair for the extravagant, but he wouldn't spend his own time and brainpower devising something particularly clever. Not, at least, when it was so much easier to just delegate the acquisition and purchase of said costume to an assistant and not have to do any of the legwork himself.

"Do you play the part, too?" Thom asked with a smile, taking a half step back from her as the space behind him opened up once more. "On the dance floor, I mean."