The First Annual Welcome to Hogwarts Ball!, Open to all members

[Arthur Kirkland]

The "Welcome to Hogwarts Ball" was a new event at Hogwarts, and very poorly named, Arthur thought as he entered the freshly decorated Great Hall. Of course, he was among the first to arrive. Not out of any sense of apprehension for the ball, but all non-exchange student prefects were required to help with the arrangements. In Arthur's well-bred mind, this meant playing supervisor, so he merely looked on as the other students went about, working with the professors to make the Great Hall sparkle.

And sparkle it did, Arthur thought as the last of the preparations were taken care of. In all its splendor, Hogwarts really was beautiful. For this ball, the hall was decorated with aspects of many different global cultures. Arthur had sighed when the idea was first presented. So many different cultures in one room? That would be as chaotic as this whole idiotic exchange system.

Somehow, though, Hogwarts pulled it off. The Great Hall looked spectacular. Asia faded into Africa, Africa to South America, South America to Europe, and Europe to North America. And it did so flawlessly. Arthur had to give a hand to whoever was behind all of this, he was surprisingly impressed.

Arthur decided to scope the room out a bit more before the other students showed up. Tables full of delicious looking foods from all corners of the world lined the walls. The large, usual tables in the Great Hall were cleared out, and simply decorated, round tables dotted the main part of the floor. At the front of the Hall, the teacher's raised seating had been converted to a stage, where a live band was now setting up.

It wasn't long until students began to shuffle into the Great Hall, 'Ooohs' and "Ahs~" sounding out every which way. Arthur resigned himself to the table reserved for prefects, though he was one of the only people occupying it. Other prefects had people to meet and spend the night's festivities with. Oh, well.

[Margaux Williams]

When Margaux had first heard about the Welcome Ball, her stomach flipped nervously. Sure, there had been dances at her old school, but she had never attended an actual ball before. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time, anxious thoughts running across her mind. How fancy would the ball be? Was she supposed to ask someone? Was someone supposed to ask her? Would she know anyone by then? The thoughts only increased the anxiety tenfold.

Thankfully, though, she managed to distract herself and that was that, until a few days before the ball, when she was thrown into the tense atmosphere, trying to find something suitable to wear. She never managed to land a date, but that hardly mattered to her. Her focus for the evening was to, potentially, have fun (and not make too much of an embarrassment of herself).

Though she usually dressed leaning towards comfort, she did enjoy gussying herself up. She wasn't a make-up master, but she could pull off a few tricks to heighten her looks (and hopefully not look like a monster). Her dress robes managed to look splendid, in her opinion (and thank goodness, too. For if they hadn't, she'd have surely had a nervous breakdown. After all, she was nervous enough, not really knowing anyone attending).

While she was usually early, she decided it was best for the evening to enter the Great Hall a little bit late. She didn't want to be the one that awkwardly showed up early (as she was destined to do at times). With a deep breath, she followed her roommates to the Great Hall, gazing about in wonder as she entered. It looked spectacular and Margaux found herself, once more, overcome with an appreciation for magic.

[Ludwig Beilschmidt]

Ludwig had never entirely understood the point of parties, and he'd never been comfortable at the ones he'd had to attend. So, when he first read the flier about the Welcome Ball pinned to the notice board in his common room, he'd shrugged and immediately decided to skip the whole ordeal. But for the rest of that day, no one seemed able to shut up about the ball. There would be good food and music, it seemed, and anyone who wasn't going obviously had a screw loose in their head. Finally, Ludwig reasoned grumpily that, him being an exchange student, it would be bad form to miss a party held specifically for exchange students.

So at the end of the day, Ludwig had washed his face, re-combed his hair, and put on dress robes in a muted blue-gray before joining the flow of people heading towards the Great Hall. The vast room had been impressively decorated, and Ludwig could hear collective approvals from everyone once they moved past the doors. Of course, having arrived a little early (a habit of his), Ludwig saw that the festivities hadn't quite started yet. Unfortunately, most people wore dress robes, and Ludwig hadn't seen any familiar faces. Anxious about striking up a conversation with someone he hardly knew, Ludwig decided to pass the time by making a loop of the room to get a better look at the set-up and decorations.

The room had filled up a little more by the time he returned to the doors, but the place still couldn't be called lively. Still feeling uncertain about his decision to come, Ludwig stood near one of the walls and kept an eye on everyone entering the room, looking for even a slightly familiar face.