Avoiding the Issue

[Andrew Bingham]

The only reason Andrew was at the ball was because everyone else was and he felt like a good prefect would show up to school events. He was intentionally avoiding Miss McIntrye at the moment, still upset for her completely rejecting his simple touches the day after his brother died in the hospital wing. Surely if she didn't want him to touch her hand while he was crying and grieving his loss, then she wouldn't want him to dance with her either!

Basically he'd had one dance since the whole event began, and he was beginning to question whether or not he should leave and go back up to the common room. He was just waiting to dance with Miss Cadwallader, as it was appropriate for him to dance with his co-prefect. She was busy dancing with another young man at the moment, though, so he awkwardly stood and watched everyone dance.

AND THEN SOMEONE APPROACHED. #WorstStarterEver

  

[Maertje Vandenbroek]

To say that it had been an odd week for Maertje would be an understatement. First, there was the Potions competition, at which she had failed horrifically, then she had been displayed as a statue in the Grat Hall for three days and finally, earlier in the day, she had caught a fainting Englishman on her way back from seeing Karel and Edda during the Hogsmeade trip. But, with all of the oddness (hopefully) behind her, tonight had gotten off to a decent start with her opening dance with Signore Del Turco, who was certainly charming enough, despite not being from one of the more exotic schools like Mandira or Cabruxa. She'd had quite a few dances after that, mostly with young men who knew of her family and knew her to be a member of it, but when she'd seen Alfons coming in her direction (potentially for a dance, potentially not, but she wasn't about to take the risk) she had found a way to tactfully retreat through a thicker portion of the crowd to somewhere near the refreshments. She supposed Moeder would expect her to dance with him at some point, but she preferred to avoid it for as long as she could.

As she milled around,past the punch and various finger foods, pretending to look for something to eat, she spotted a young man, standing alone at the other end of the table looking towards the crowd. Of course, there were plenty of people standing around, waiting for dances, but he stood out in that he didn't have the same hopeful glint in his eye as the others. It seemed to her that he would likely rather be elsewhere. Feeling a bit sorry for him, she abandoned her pretend search for adequate food and walked over to him on a mission of mercy to make his evening at least a little bit more agreeable or at least not so solitary. "Hello," she greeted in an upbeat, lightly accented tone with a sunny, but courteous smile "You look lonely. Are you waiting for someone?"