Ease your mind [Chris]

[APRIL LILY POTTER]

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He had done it again. That conniving old man had come up with something so stupid, it was brilliant. A Social Ball. Oh yes, the perfect way to get all of the school together in one place. She had to hand it to him, it was going to be a sure fire way of getting everyone involved. April couldn’t have helped smiling when the news came to her about Dumbledore’s latest school activity. She wasn’t surprised the slightest bit, a ball was bound to happen sometime that year anyway, so it didn’t come to a shock that it was presented to everyone so early in the year. But what did surprise her was how the old man had bent an everyday ball, by deciding that everyone would be parried up with someone that he had chosen. A list of names went up the next day, and like hundreds of other girls, April had indeed rushed forward and started the long search for her name among the thousands. It took a while but she found her name, and tracing her finger along the line she saw who she was parried with. Christopher Locke. A smile edged at her lips, a guy from her own house and only a year below. She noticed a few hours later that her pairing was one of the only few to have both parties of the same house. It didn’t make much difference in the long run, but she had paused at this information, slightly curious as to why they had been picked together. Because she had insufficient information, and maybe she was already planning what dress she would wear, April concluded that whatever evil idea that Dumbledore had come up with, she was going to have to work it out that evening. With everyone at the ball, it would be a great opportunity to brainstorm with like minded people about the whole thing. And maybe a bit of fun would come of the night.

“Hmm, the blue one does look better on.” she murmured to no one in particular, as she turned her body sideways so she could see the shape of her body in the dress. April had been talking to herself for the last four hours, but every time someone walked in asking her if she was indeed talking to herself, April would flat out deny it, even though she knew it was true. It was best not to admit that you’re crazy to anyone, especially someone who could use it against you. All thoughts aside, April had finally chosen her dress. To show her support to her house, and her favourite colour, she had chosen a blue dress. It was a ball gown, but not one of those poufy ones that looked like hoops held them in place, it was one that was tight in the right place and fell off her body to touch the ground like a traditional ball dress did, before they invented the hoops. The fabric was tulle, the stuff they make bridal veils from. Rosettes were placed mainly across the top of her dress, and then a clump on the purple waistband, with a few of them scattered near the end of her dress. The purple waistband was tight across her skin, reminding her that she was not going to eat or drink too much. Hundreds of small glints of silver streaked through the dress, a shower of glitter among the fabric. It was a pretty touch, something she had only noticed when she had turned off the light above her mirror. Being strapless had greatly concerned April, as this would be the first dress she owned to be without straps, but she put her hands together and made sure that it wouldn’t move an inch. It wasn’t like she really wanted anyone to know that her confidence was riding on what everyone about how she looked.

Heels had been a must; she refused to dress up and still look like a nine year old girl because of her height. It was a pain in the butt to be one of the smallest girls in her year, it did add insult to injury when people always mistaken her for a younger and more stupid version of herself. Tonight was no different. April had strapped on a blue pair of high heels, the ones that had the bow on the front with the little flowers on the side, and raised her dress a little so she could see what they looked like on her feet. She sighed, and rolled her shoulders back in slight annoyance, her dress would still drag across the ground even with the heels. A full night of walking would end up the the bottom of her dress being covered in a thick layer of dirt, and she really didn’t want that. Two spells later, she was happy to know that it wasn’t a concern anymore. Jewellery had been a problem, was she to match the blue on her dress or the small layer of purple. After careful thought, April picked the blue over the purple, mainly because she had a better set of jewellery in blue than in purple. The earrings were a unique pair she had come across a few years back, it sat against her ears with little weight. While her necklace weight quite a bit more than the earrings did, it still didn’t impact on her as much as it should have. Both had flower designs, and were silver and blue. She had also picked a nice sapphire ring to match; one that had two diamonds sitting in between the huge heart shaped sapphire stone.

Makeup was another matter. To match her whole outfit, April had to borrow some of her mother’s makeup. Dark red lipstick came gently across her lips, a hesitant stroke of her hand, careful not to make a mistake. A thin layer of blush had been applied to each check, it was noticeable, but not horribly overdone. Blue eye shadow of three different shades had crossed her eyelids, a blend of sparkles added in to brighten it up. Waterproof mascara had been added onto her eyelashes, a blue tint against the bright green colour of her eyes. Glitterdust had been added to the rest of her face, and all the exposed parts of her skin. Turning slightly, April couldn’t help the small smile of delight as she shimmered in the light. The small purse which held her few makeup supplies, also now held her wand, which she believed wouldn’t be needed at all, but brought just in case. Her nails were now long and had finally rounded at the ends, which gave her leeway to use her sparkly blue nailpolsh to brighten them up also. For the first time in a while, April could look at herself in the mirror and be happy at what reflected back.

April finally stepped away from the mirror, and without glancing back, walked out of the room and into the crowd of Ravenclaw students that stood in the common room. She could hear nervous cries from a few kids, but she mostly heard hundreds of voice complement one another one how they had dressed up for the occasion. A few kids had noticed her arrival into the room and stopped dead, who caused quite a stir among the others, who then wanted to know what was going on. April could feel a blush cross her face as everyone turned and stared, either with envy or approval. She waved her hand at everyone to defuse the situation, which did the trick, and she happily watched everyone go back to doing their thing. She sighed loudly as she walked past the main group which was near the doorway out of the common room, after a good few minutes of shoving; she had finally reached the crowded staircase. All manner of houses made their way down to the hall, a few called out greetings to her as she hurried past, one hand holding her dress up from the ground, and the other making sure she didn’t lose her purse.

Entering the great hall, April couldn’t help stopping as she gazed around the crowded room, hundreds of happy faces could be seen all around her, and she smiled as she noticed a few familiar faces. There had been a time where her nerves had stopped her from entering that room, but she pushed that behind her, and walked to a spot where she wouldn’t be surrounded by hundreds of other students. April had never been claustrophobic before, but being that close to everyone had stirred her phobia back into existence. She paused a moment as she waited for Chris, and decided to think about a few things as she waited. Harry somehow ended up with Cho being his partner, which amused his sister greatly, because she knew how each of them felt about the other. April thought Dumbledore had some part on that little partnership, but since she couldn’t prove it, there was no need for her to dwell on that thought. Useless facts buzzed in her head as her eyes fell down onto the bowl of punch that stood on a table not too far from where she was standing. Something about more diseases were found in shared food and drink than on a keyboard nibbed at the back of her mind, but she brushed it aside. “What’s the chance that someone’s already spiked the punch?” she asked the approaching figure, a gentle smile on her face.

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TAGS!?!

[/b] Chris
WORDS!?![/b] 1,595
MUSE!?![/b] at 360%
MUSIC!?![/b] Undisclosed Desires by Muse
OUTFIT!?![/b] CLICKY ^.^
NOTES!?![/b] Oh my god, I apologise for that word count. I tried cutting it down from the 2,000 mark I started off with, but just couldn’t cut enough out. Sorry darling.
CREDITS!?![/b]
This template was created by charoulla of Caution 2.0 <3 so PLEASE credit in case you want to use the above or else she will haunt you down and KILL you!
charoulla ©2009, , All Rights Reserved[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/font]

[CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL LOCKE]

Headmaster Dumbledore apparently still knew how to cause a stir within the student body at Hogwarts. He had came up with the idea of a Social Ball of all things. At first glance, it appeared to be a rather strange phenomena, considering how some of the students in their respective houses treated each other. Quite frankly, Chris believed the whole Social Ball idea was to place Gryffindors and Slytherins together, hoping that at least half of the couples didn't nearly bite each others heads off. Despite how Dumbledore planned to pair the students for the ball, it still seemed like an ingenious idea. After all, the whole idea forced the students to be with each other. Clearly, Dumbledore would be most likely to pair students that didn't like each other up, to hopefully make them get along for at least a small amount of time. Even with that fact, the students could probably still get out of it, if they really wanted to. But, that would essentially break the whole magical part of the experience, no pun intended.

A little bit after the ball was announced, the couples list was posted up. It was a predictable scene that the list was completely surrounded by giddy and happy students that approached the list to see who they were to be paired up with. This big swarm of students seemed like a continuous phenomena around that list of dates, with the students chatting with each other about who they were going with. Some of the students appeared to be happy, while others seemed to despise their date. Having to push his way through the crowd to get to the list, Chris was eventually able to reach far enough to see who he was paired up with. Studying the long list, he eventually found his name. Looking to see who his date was, he found that he was paired up with April Potter. She was a year older than him, and helped him previously with his work. Smiling, he nodded in his approval of his date. Indeed, April was nice and helped him before. Plus, they were both in the same house, which was always a benefit. Upon further examination of the list, he noticed that only him and April were the only couple to be from the same house. Yes, it just added to the strange phenomena that surrounded this upcoming ball. Although, that would be ultimately more helpful to both himself and to April.

Now that the list of couples was available and that Chris knew who he was going with, there was just that little problem of finding what to wear. What exactly did one wear to a ball anyway? The whole idea was really foreign to him. It was just simply the fact that he never really attended a ball before. For that matter, what was he going to say to April at this ball? Both of those questions were definitely something that he had to figure out for himself before actually attending the ball. After all, he didn't want to look awkward and completely unaware of what he was supposed to do. Yet, he quite honestly had no real idea about what he was supposed to be doing as it was. Being the third year that he was, he was only just starting to go through puberty. For that matter, his mind was not yet focused on girls as it was. Indeed, that was a dilemma that he had to face. He just had to be careful not to express that dilemma outwardly for anyone else, including April, to see. That would certainly bring the wrong image of himself, and it would not be the best way to express himself.

And yet, Chris knew that trying to be anything but himself was really setting himself up for failure. Indeed, it was a very hard choice to make: to set himself up for failure by being himself, or to set himself up for failure by not being himself. Yes, that decision was by far a hard one to make. Even he, of all people, hated to fail. Of course, that was rather hard to tell with his failure to cast spells correctly for his classes. Besides that little caveat, he naturally took his limitations at face value, and had to learn to live with them first. This was, after all, the first step in correcting those very limitations. Even despite these failures, he tried hard in his school classes. Therefore, he would still try hard not to be an awkward fool at the dance. Yet, he knew that he desperately needed to stay true to himself. If he couldn't show that he could stay true to his own limitations, how would anyone else at that school take him seriously? They would all think that he was just putting on some big act, or just merely messing with them. At either rate, that was not something that he wanted to express. It only made logical sense that he stayed true to his own personality.

The day of the ball, Chris woke up from bed in the morning, and took a shower. He naturally wanted to look clean for the Social Ball later in the day. After finishing up in the shower, he took his time putting on his suit to make sure that he was doing it right. After sliding on the white button up shirt, he proceeded to button it up along with sliding into his black dress pants and applying a black belt around his waist. Despite his limitation of what to wear, he surprisingly had several ties to choose from. There was an assortment of colors available. For house pride reasons and a consistent reminder that both him and April were from the same house for the ball, he decided to choose a solid blue tie. Besides, he figured that going to the ball in the typical Ravenclaw colored tie would have made him look too lazy. At least the solid blue tie showed house pride, and that he wasn't nearly as lazy as choosing the same tie that he would normally wear around Hogwarts.

It actually took him a few times to correctly tie his tie around his neck. Chris' hands just kept slipping when trying to tie it around his neck, that it would just hang limply from his neck. After several unsuccessful tries at tying the tie, he was finally able to do so. Giving the tie one last tug, he made sure that it was snug around his neck. With the typical Hogwarts uniform, his tie was never around his neck nearly as tightly as he was just making it. For that matter, he usually was getting dressed half asleep. It was usually a wonder with him, that he was able to dress himself correctly in the right clothes. Nevertheless, he was able to put the tie on fully, and slipped his jacket over his shirt, being careful to button the two buttons on the front of the jacket. Looking at himself in the mirror, he thought that he looked good enough for the ball.

Before he could actually head off to the ball, Chris had to do something about his unruly hair. With a short sigh, he picked up a brush from the counter by the mirror and actually made an attempt to brush his hair for once. He was able to smooth it down enough, but he let it keep a few curls on his head. At least it wasn't in some form of an unimaginable mess. Yes, that always helped. Looking one last time in the mirror, he nodded his head at what he saw. Yes, he looked good enough to go to the ball. As a matter of fact, he took longer to actually look good, than he usually did at Hogwarts just to attend class. Indeed, it seemed to be such a strange phenomena that both boys and girls would actually take longer than usual to get ready, although there were bound to be a few people that took just as long on a regular school day.

Heading out of the dormitory, Chris left students that were still congregating in the Ravenclaw Common Room. He walked down the staircases to the ground floor. Maneuvering himself pas friends talking to each other and couples getting together, he was able to make his way to the Great Hall. Unfortunately, height was not an asset for him, as he had a hard time seeing over the other students to find April. He walked around a little, before spotting his date from behind. April was apparently already studying the bowl of punch. Walking over to April, he heard her ask a rather intriguing question. "I think the probability of that happening already is slim, but it would quickly increase as you continue to wait," he answered her question, not knowing if it was actually directed towards him. Arriving at April's side, he smiled to her. "Hi April, you look amazing," he greeted her, observing her shimmering outfit already. She apparently went all out for the night's ball, which made him already begin to mentally question if he was dressed appropriately.

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[ tag ]: April Potter
[ words ]: 1,536
[ outfit ]: outfit
[ notes ]: It's perfectly fine, mine's pretty long too.
[ lyrics ]: Get It Right performed by the cast of Glee
[ credit ]: me

[APRIL LILY POTTER]

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The echo of voices had started to cause April a little more than discomfort to say the least. She didn’t like loud places because they always seemed to have the most annoying people, or the most talkative people. If she had a choice, the redhead would have been curled up in front of a warm fire, with her favourite blanket and dog-eared book. But life have decided to take her outside the common room, and into the embrace of the Social Ball, filled with hundreds of students and staff members. To have fun was slightly different to the young red head, who eyed the crowd with slight amusement; she could see the world as an amusing place, unless she was among that vile crowd that populated the darker parts of the room. Maybe it was the fact she wasn’t standing in the doorway, but then again, April could still feel the energy from all the other students in the room. A slight disapproving scowl crossed her features when a boy cursed loudly, and his friend burst out laughing, hitting him on the back. She was still young enough to enjoy such simple things, but her intelligence didn’t allow such vial and disgrace upon herself. Those things were never apart of her life, she could never stoop that low... unless a spider came into her path, then all bets were off.

April had never been much of a social kid when she started Hogwarts; she was always seen as the sister to the famous Harry Potter. Not many saw her as April, fourth year Ravenclaw. She had adjusted to this new role, one where the youngest sibling always was the most annoying. To partake in this role had seemed stupid at first, April didn’t ever want to be the kid who was annoying, or take the stereotype into play. But then she realised that people would remember her more if she was annoying, than a quite girl. Not to say she wasn’t, because April wasn’t one to gossip, too risky to say the least. Her view on this was highly influenced on her family, because they were the ones holding her up, as she held them up. April nibbed her lip deep in concentration, a blank look crossed her face as she tried to push all of her negative thoughts aside.

Among other things that had been pushed aside, was the incident at Hogwarts, which had caused a feeling of emptiness inside her soul. Too many students were getting hurt, now most were too scared to do anything that would leave them venerable. April was one of these kids, not that she would tell her parents or Harry; they had enough to worry about. Her smile slightly faded as she remembered what she had been told about the duelling club. Poor Harry, stupid, stupid boys. Why did bad things always happen to her brother, it was like he had been jinxed or something. April closed her eyes, leaning against the wall for a small moment. She had compressed all this information for a reason, to keep it away from her main concerns, while she worried about things that she did have control over. Today was supposed to be the night she could throw it all out the window and be a good partner. But she couldn’t help feeling that she was missing something important. It nibbled at the back of her mind, a constant presence that won’t go away with free will.

The Punch bowl was being used by a couple standing next to it, the guy served the drinks for a few people before complaining about being a slave and handing it over to a random guy he passed. A humoured smile appeared on her lips, as the random guy threw the spoon at the first guy and it made it to its intended target, the back of his head. April attention pulled away as she glanced over at the the voice who suddenly joined her own, and smiled warmly at the boy. She nodded her head in agreement, and laughed gently, “By the looks of things, I’m not sure spiking the drink is going to be our main problem. It’ll be a shame if the whole thing goes to waste.” she murmured, indicating the two boys who were now cursing at one another over the punch bowl. April could sympathise with their dates who rolled their eyes and snuck off while the boys weren’t looking. When Chris was standing beside her she turned her gaze away from the brawl and turned her attention back onto the teenager. April’s cheeks turned a nice colour of pink from the compliment, and instinctively her hands reached up to try and cover her embarrassment. “Thank you. The suit looks really good on you.” she gave him a soft smile and lowered her hands back down to her sides, colour still clearly displayed on her face. April really loathed how easily embarrassed she could get over things, she knew it was something she’d grow out of eventually, but it wasn’t helping her in the present that much. She glanced back at Chris and smiled apologetically at him, “I’m sorry; I’m not normally like this. Compliments aren’t a strong point for me; normally I end up being laughed at by brother dearest when my face goes all red.” she explained, as she willed her face to finally turn a normal shade of white, which it finally agreed to do. April glanced away and remerged through her purse for a moment before pulling out a handful of sweets that she had snuck into her bag from Harry’s stash the day before. , “Chocolate frog? Acid Pop? Peppermint Toad? Treacle Tart? Liquorish Wand?” she asked, holding out her hand to him, a shy smile on her face.

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TAGS!?!

[/b] Chris
WORDS!?![/b] 978
MUSE!?![/b] Sadly based on a RL event
MUSIC!?![/b] Undisclosed Desires by Muse
OUTFIT!?![/b] CLICKY ^.^
NOTES!?![/b] Eeep, muse was bad. I’m sorry!
CREDITS!?![/b]
This template was created by charoulla of Caution 2.0 <3 so PLEASE credit in case you want to use the above or else she will haunt you down and KILL you!
charoulla ©2009, , All Rights Reserved[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/font]

[CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL LOCKE]

Within the social aspect of life at Hogwarts, Chris was not really the person to start engaging any student that he saw just for the heck of it. No, he mainly kept to himself. That didn't mean that he didn't talk to anyone at Hogwarts. No, it just meant that he normally wouldn't initiate a conversation, and had trouble opening up to people that he met for the first time. For that matter, he liked to stay underneath the radar. It simply made for sense to him, and that was the route that he enjoyed taking. Sure, that meant that he wasn't the most popular student at Hogwarts. He could honestly say that he didn't really care about popularity at Hogwarts. After all, popularity seemed to be an indicator that would change constantly. Sure, it would be nice to be well-known and well-like by all of the students in the castle. And yet, the whole idea of popularity made him shudder. Popularity would mean more students watching you, and more students analyzing your every breath. That was definitely something that he probably wouldn't be able to handle at all. So, it was probably for the best that he wasn't popular.

Yes, it was true indeed that Chris was not the most social student there at Hogwarts. Despite all of his short-comings in that department, there he was at the Social Ball. Certainly, he could've bowed out of it, if he really wanted to. He probably would have, if he knew that he was paired up with someone that he didn't like. However, he was paired up with April, who he already knew. Thus, he couldn't possibly skip the ball, just because he was not normally too social or anything. No, he wouldn't want to let April down. Therefore, he knew beforehand that he was going to attend the ball. Well, not much planning was done for the fact that he was going to the ball. Instead, he had to make sure that he already had clothes in order to wear to the ball. Not only was he not a fan of big social interactions, but he was not a fan of going out clothes shopping as well. Thankfully, he did have a suit in his possession for the ball. He didn't have to run out to buy something, which was always appreciated and it helped him calm down his nerves before the ball.

Looking around at his environment, Chris couldn't help but frown at some of the behaviors that other students were exhibiting in the Great Hall. Joking and running around was something that he thought wasn't appropriate for those students to be doing as it was. However, he even spotted a few others nearly fighting by the punch bowl. Certainly that did not provide too much good prospects for the night. It was precisely because of those very behaviors that he was not that social amongst the other students in the castle. While it was fun to joke around sometimes, some of the behaviors of the other students were clearly not the best decisions that they could make. However, he had to realize that he was not partnered with those students that were acting like someone just let them out of a cage, thankfully. He was partnered with April for the night. While he naturally had no idea how the older Ravenclaw would behave that night, he was fairly certain that she wouldn't try to attack him or anything, like how some of the other students were acting already. Despite his feelings about being at the ball, he knew that he had to be happy and be a good partner for April.

Smiling as he looked over at April, Chris nodded to her comment. Indeed, the antics of the boys now having a verbal fight with each other were not the best way to spend their evening. Even their dates didn't seem too amused with their fighting, by rolling their eyes and sneaking away. Quite honestly, he had to agree with that line of thought as well. "I know. But, their loss is someone else's gain I suppose," he added to her comment. There were usually two sides to any given situation, where someone would benefit, and another person would gain. That was not always the case, but it appeared to follow that general idea at that time. Looking back to April, he noticed that she was blushing from the compliment that he gave her. "Thank you," he responded to her compliment of him. Wasn't that the proper thing that he was supposed to say to a date? He knew that he wasn't that knowledgeable on social interactions, but he was certain that girls liked compliments. Of course, it always helped if the compliments were true. Indeed, April did look amazing that night. He smiled and nodded to what she said. "Oh, it's fine. There's no need to apologize. Ah, but your brother is not your partner for tonight," he reminded her with a grin. Yes, he was naturally not her brother, and he was certainly not laughing at her embarrassment from blushing. April managed to produce snacks that she apparently snuck into the ball. "Thank you. I think I will have one," he responded as he looked down at her stash. Deciding on the Peppermint Toad, he picked it up. He smiled to her as he took a bite from the Peppermint Toad.

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[ tag ]: April Potter
[ words ]: 904
[ outfit ]: outfit
[ notes ]: Sorry for the long wait!
[ lyrics ]: Get It Right performed by the cast of Glee
[ credit ]: me