at the stroke of midnight {open}

[Ariella Rockwell]

It was the night of the Halloween dance, a night that was most anticipated by the students and Ariella was no different. She couldn't help the grin that appeared on her face as she glided into dance hall, her heels clicking softly on the hard wood floor. She reached up a hand to her hair, making sure the pins were still in place, the material of her dress sliding over her skin like a cool breeze. She glanced up at the ceiling ans smiled. It had been charmed for the night to look like the sky outside and it was gorgeous. The stars were bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Candles in pumpkins floated overhead, illuminating the room and giving it a soft, intimate feel. All sorts of charmed things filled the room, giving a person the feeling of security in the candle light, but doubt when peering into the shadows, wondering what lay there.

For a dance that everyone was waiting for, there weren't a lot of people there, certainly no one she knew, but she headed over to one of the tables set up and sat down, smoothing out her dress. She picked up on the small candies overflowing from the cauldron in the middle of the table. She laughed some when she saw it was the Potions master's cauldron.

outfit

[Jamie-Lynn Ellonin]

outfit

Jamie smiled at her surroundings as she entered the hall. It was beautiful, like everyone had said before. Unlike many of her fellow pupils she generally spent the evening of dances outside with a few friends so had never really cared what she looked like. Now it was different. She had actually wanted to try and look at least presentable this time just so she didn’t get that sort of reputation. It was all so captivating, the floating candles, the charmed ceiling and of course the atmosphere it all gave off. All of it gave the whole room a feel like tonight was going to be perfect. The only problem was, she hadn’t got a date. Something she had always wanted since she was a little kid, to go to a school dance with a boy that she actually liked and who actually liked her, not how much alcohol she downed in a minute.

Despite the sparse amount of people there Jamie felt sure that people were ok and that they would be arriving very shortly. She heard her expensive heels click off of the floor and pulled on her dress slightly to make sure that she was not going to tip over the material coming out of the back of the dress. She quite liked her makeup tonight as she had opted for a smoky eye and a nude lip instead of her plain eye makeup she normally wore. Scrunching her hair to make sure it was ok she finished primping and walked into the hall properly.

Her heels clicked on the floor, it appeared to echo around her because nobody was talking. It almost seemed like they were staring at her but this was probably untrue. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen a girl in a dress before; there was at least three in the room right now. Jamie held her breath as she tried to think about what could happen tonight. Usually her nights ended up with her in some place she had no memory of getting there, or why she was there and falling asleep where she sat. Well at least if she ever became homeless she would get enough rest.

Finding a seat at a nearby table she sat down, there was another girl that she recognised but could not place a name on. Probably just someone she had seen around school or something. She was wearing a red dress like herself, but had teamed it with black accessories instead of her who had gone for silver. Jamie suddenly felt self conscious, this girl looked better than her. She wasn’t normally one to be self conscious but she was if someone could pull off a look ten times better than her. Still she was determined to enjoy her night so she settled down into her chair and picked up a candy from the cauldron in the middle of the table.