Alone Together

Fane hadn't high hopes for the St. Valentine's day dance, in fact, the mischievous boy dreaded attending and once inside the overly pink and heart decorated Grand Hall, he questioned why he had ever bothered. Romance wasn't his strong suite, in fact, it was hardly a quality of him at all and those who Fane considered as friends and whom he'd might want to dance with were in the year below him and not permitted into the dance. Fane scowled at his reflection in the overly polished silverware on the tables. All this work on his hair and make up and he even put on a decent pair of dress robes, black with a soft pink tie, and yet nobody around who would care enough to see it.

After his third cup of punch and consuming a hefty chunk of pink and red macaroons, the young Cerisier contemplated turning tail on the night and heading in early. After all, he had no one to talk to and the music so far sucked. He sat boredly by the refreshments table, his seeming date of the night, with a pot of roses he stole from a table and began playing with the crimson flowers. He was nearly done fashioning a flower crown for himself when he saw a shadow fall over his sitting figure. The boy looked up at his approacher and rose an eyebrow, wondering what had inspired them to come over. "Can I help you?" He questioned, sounding irritated like they might have come over just to ruin his fun, to tell him he could not take that many macaroons or that he was making a mess out of roses but it was his night so he wanted to do what he wanted to do. "Or do you wanna join me? We've got flower crowns and all the refreshments you can intake." He offered, figuring he had nothing to lose. If the person thought he was being a dolt, there was always the remainder of Christmas break to get back at them. "What do you say? Let's be alone together!"

"Not at all," Fiona replied to Fane. "I was just looking for the macaroons and saw them with you. Your date for the night?" She picked up a macaroon said, "sorry. I've already got a date with a young Spaniard," and bit into it. She gave the sullen looking boy a quick studying look. Ever since Mabel decided to take him as a friend and thus Fiona losing a potential pranking partner she'd more or less avoided him. Right now though there was no Mabel around.

Fiona swallowed the macroon and then spoke again. "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're all miserable because my sister can't come. There is next year you know." She paused. "Why sulk now though when you could find a way to create fun and chaos? I'm not on prefect duty tonight and very good at turning a blind eye." She reached for the punch and poured some into a cup. "So what do you say? Want to create some fun?"

"Yeah, pretty sweet date, huh? Lucky, I'm good at sharing," He offered the plate up to the familiar girl. He hadn't seen much of Fiona since he started hanging around her little sister. From what he gathered, the Miller sisters didn't get along too well, so he subconsciously kept distance from Fiona in order to prevent himself from pissing Mabel off. However, Mabel wasn't here and he was starting to no longer care if it pissed her off or not. Fiona was a great prankster.

"Wow, the poor little sod had it in him to ask you out? I give him brownie points for that," Fane replied, a little crestfallen, expecting her to go off and rejoin with Rene as soon as she quenched her taste for macaroons. He shook his head as the girl apparently picked up on his off mood and made a comment about it. "It's not just Mabel. It appears that since Gus transferred, all my friends are in the year below me," Fane admitted, feeling his lips tug down. "And who says I want to go to the dance with her anyway?" He added, defensively. It's not like Mabel owned him! The thought which most likely inspired Fane to do what he did next.

With a prank offered and his mind slowly melting into a sugary and flower crown puddle topped off with horrible music, Fane was eager for a change. "Your boy won't miss you?" Fane replied, already standing up and brushing the loose rose petals from his person. "What did you have in mind?" He asked, though he was sure there were plenty of materials lying around that if she was empty of ideas, he could concoct something.

"You didn't think he would?" Fiona asked. She wasn't about to correct him on his assumption. That is, Fiona actually did the asking and not the other way around. Though she did wonder if he would find out eventually. After all, if Grace knew, then there must be others. "You do that. He could do with a few brownie points."

Fiona scrunched up her nose at his mention of Gus. "I'm not too happy about his transfer either. My prefect duties were increased because of him and his snap decision to go somewhere else." She gave Fane a small secretive smile. "Well the fact that you're sulking over here may give that impression. Mabel is a very good dancer. You should dance with her next year." What was she saying?

She looked around to where she last saw Rene and shrugged. "We may be a couple but that doesn't meant we're joined at the hip." Rene could be a little intense at times but Fiona thought he wouldn't insist on them spending all their time together. She tapped a finger against her chin. "Well..." She looked around the refreshment table and picked up a bottle of some sort of spicy sauce. "Make sure you've had your drink first. This might accidentally end up in the punch. Just a little to make it look like it wasn't deliberate." She looked at the bottle and her mouth twisted. "I wonder why it is here anyway. It doesn't exactly fit does it?"

Fane shook his head, bearing a smug smile. "Didn't think he had the balls, to be honest." Rene wasn't the most daring of boys in their year, but he supposed the boy was growing a backbone as he got older. Good for him, Fane thought, with mild interest.

"And thanks to his leave, I've got a new roommate who is going to drive me crazy, I swear. At least Gus never nagged at me to clean up! I mean, at least my clothes stay on my side of the room...usually," Fane replied harshly. He really did miss the poor sod. With Gus gone, the only other boy he could call a friend was Stark, and he wasn't even in his year. Fane heaved a heavy sigh and gave Fiona a look when she told him he ought to dance with her sister. An eyebrow raised, Fane replied cautiously, "If I'm not too busy dancing with others, I might." He paused. "Thanks for your blessing?"

However, that was no matter to him. He wouldn't have to think about whether or not he was to dance with Mabel until the following year and for that moment, he just needed a good prank to get him back in a good mood. He grinned as she held up the bottle and he understood her means clearly. "Too bad neither of us thought to bring some sort of potion. That'd be even funnier," He noted, and then set down his cup of punch. "please, if I drink any more, I'll be pissing all night."

Offering a shrug in reply to her commentary on the presence of the bottle, Fane was ready to go to work. "I've been here all night, so if you wanna spark up some fascinating conversation with the chaperones of the dance, my hand might just slip over the punch bowl. Who knows?" Fane offered, and discreetly reached for the bottle of spicy sauce.

"At least you only have to put up with the same roommate for a couple of years," Fiona pointed out. "I've had to put up with an overly neat roomate for coming up six years so far.  One more after this and no-one can lecture me on my messy room or side of the room."  She burst out laughing and shook her head.  "I didn't say that to give you my blessing.  I'm sure Mabel herself would tell you in no uncertain terms she does not need my blessing to dance with anyone.  But if you feel you need it well if you want to risk sticking your head in a crocodile's mouth go ahead."  He probably already did do that and more with him being Mabel's friend and all.  Very risky business for anyone in Fiona's opinion.

She sighed.  "Yes. That would have really been very enjoyable.  Remind me next year and I'll brew something up for the occasion.  I'm sure the potions professor won't question me too closely as I can always claim to be practising for my final exams."  Of course she was going to have to work out how to cover her tracks on that one but there was an entire year in which to work out the finer details.

Fiona grinned at the suggestion.  "Here goes," she said as she ambled her way over to the nearest chaperone.  One of the professors who had less trouble with her in the past and thus less likely to think she was up to something.  Of course the fact she was a prefect also helped.  "Hello sir," she said in greeting and was soon falling into a conversation over what she planned for her future.  Fiona had nothing really planned and thought she could just make stuff up but instead found herself actually seriously discussing what she should do after graduation.  This gave Fane plenty of time to do as the pair planned.

"Just put stink bombs in her sock drawer, then her friends will think she has stinky feet and who's the gross roommate then?" Fane suggested, chuckling at his own suggestion. It actually wasn't half bad an idea and maybe he'd use it on his own new roomie.

He twisted the gage in his ear, unsure of how to respond to Fiona talking about Mabel. At least she wasn't forbidding him from touching her sister. After all, she was a prefect and could probably write him up for something dumb if he pissed her off like that.

However he was more interested in the pranking than talking about the girl he couldn't dance with this year and twirled the small bottle between his fingers as he waited a good few moments for Fiona to find a chaperone and get them involved in conversation. He stole a glance towards where the girl had gone off to in order to obtain some reassurance and then went to work.

He picked up the glass he had emptied before and unscrewed the bottle of the spicy sauce. He poured a good amount of it in, then recapped it and pocketed it. "I think I'll have some punch," he grinned to himself, overplaying it but then again, who was watching him? He dipped the spice-filled cup in and watched as it spread throughout the punch. He lifted it out and then dumped the spiced up punch back in. "Now for the next..." Exactly how many punch bowls were there?

"Now there's an idea. All I have to do is remember the noseplugs." There would be a stink but it would be well worth it. And the noseplugs would be the perfect touch to complaining about the smell emanating from her roommate's draw.

Fiona wondered how much longer she could keep this conversation up. Sure she had now some great ideas for what she would do after she graduated. The fun stuff. Not the stodgy type of career her parents would want her to have. "Yes sir," she said politely and nodded. "I'm sure to think very seriously about those suggestions. Right now though I do think I must get back to meeting with my friends." l

She stepped back and turned. Should she return to Fane straight away or walk off in another direction first? Something to keep them off the scent. Fiona raised her hand and called out, "Francine," the first name to come into her head before walking in the direction the non-existent Francine was supposedly standing.

Another ten minutes to waste and Fiona turned away from a seventh year she managed to corner before returning to Fane. "So how did it all go?" she asked.

Fane slowly moved along all of the refreshment tables, taking care to not make it seem obvious. He even took an occasional break between the tables to walk out onto the dance floor for a moment in order to make sure no one was getting suspicious. He was on the last table, dropping his cup full of spicy sauce into the punch bowl, when he heard the cries of his first victim and looked up to spot a rather red faced girl fanning her face with her hands while her friends circled around her in a panicked attempt to help.

His eyes averted once he found that Fiona had returned from being the distraction and offered her a full grin. "See for yourself," He told her, motioning with his head in the direction of the panic. Chaperones were already flocking to the scene, but no one seemed to have caught on with the culprit yet for Fane watched a pair at another rigged punch bowl dip in and set their mouth's aflame.

"Oh boy! It's even better than I thought!" Fane remarked, taking Fiona's hand in his own. "Better not be caught at the scene of the crime. People may be a bit slow, but they'll eventually figure out it's the punch bowls after they try to cool off their mouths with more spicy punch," He chuckled and pulled Fiona out onto the dance floor. "So let's dance."

Fiona took note of the results and found it hard to keep a straight face.  She didn't want to risk anyone getting suspicious.  The sixth year was rather attached to her badge thank you very much but she needed some sort of outlet for mischief.  "Very well done," she said with a nod.  It certainly was effective.

There was no complaint from her as he dragged her to the dance floor.  If Rene saw them together she was confident he wouldn't make the mistake of thinking there was more to it than just a dance between classmates.  "I wonder what we could do next year to top this one?" she mused.  "With it being our last year and all we need something to mark our passage out of here."  Truth be told it was hard for her to come up with anything to top hot sauce in the punch.

Fane knew that it was just a friendly dance, though he could only imagine what a boyfriend of hers might think about seeing her dance with a boy with his sort of reputation. Nevertheless, that effected Fane none and the dance was proving to be a perfect disguise, as the flock of chaperone's hanging around the tainted punch bowls scratched their heads in confusion. Just who was the culprit of this dance disaster? Fane grinned in agreement. This had been good, but next year's had to be even better.

"Oh look at that pretty bracelet," Fane pointed as the pair danced by another couple dancing, the girl sporting a lovely and expensive looking golden bracelet. "It appears that many people have decided to crack out the fancy jewelry for this joyous occasion. What a disaster it would be if some nifflers crashed this party," he said, with a crooked grin. "Just remind me to take out all the metal in my face before the dance if we go with that one," He added as a whisper in Fiona's ear.

Seeing the effects of their little joke and the clueless faces was very entertaining. If it weren't for her little alibi and her badge she was sure she would be the number one suspect. Though Fane possibly would have come in as competition for her spot. With the activity around the punch bowl catching her attention Fiona didn't give much further thought to what Rene might think of her dancing with Fane, the other member of their year who was into practical jokes.

Fiona reluctantly turned her attention from the punch and hot faces to the jewellery worn by various students. "That really would be a shame," she agreed catching on fast. Professor St. Pierre had a few, she knew. The question was how to get a hold of some without him noticing until it was too late. There was a year to plan. "I wonder if Wendy has ever taken animals," she mused out loud in reference to the friendly neighbourhood poltergeist. "Don't fancy a rip in your face?" she asked teasingly as he brought another point of the possibly future prank to her attention. Would Rene mind too much if she didn't turn up wearing jewellery?

"Most likely student's pets, failed herbology assignments, and only the smallest, most harmful creatures the Care of Magical Creatures class has to offer," Fane replied, his eyes glinting. It would be worth a trip down to Wendy's dreary hiding place to see if they could make a deal with her for some nifflers or pixies or anything to cause distress to the 'most romantic night of their lives.'

"I think it'd be a shame for this handsome face to be ruined when I barely have even started to reap the benefits," He replied, twisting a gauge with a small cringe as he imagined what it'd feel like for his jewelry to be involuntarily removed from his face in the most hasty and unskilled manner.

The song ended and Fane parted from his dance partner with a rather ostentatious bow. "I must depart now," He told her, taking a hand and kissing it. He supposed that was even overstepping boundaries but if Rene had beef with it, Fane felt he could handle it. "Better to leave now before the chaperones grow wise and discover me. Thank you for uplifting my night," Fane said, smiling his crooked smile and then headed out of the Grand Hall.