Surprise Birthday Party

As the Alayna was still out for the day, thanks to Carina and Astrid, Ptolemy was busy setting up the common room for her surprise party. He had asked the house elves to make all of her favourites, but ensured there was a good selection of canapés and petit fours that everyone with their distinguished tastes would enjoy. There was also a large, three tier cake he had ordered from a bakery in Horizont - chocolate and caramel - with a salmon pink frosting. Champagne flutes were placed to cover one of the side tables, although the Champagne itself was kept out of sight.

He and a few others had hung streamers and paper chains around the room, and there were several hundred balloons bobbing about the high ceiling. Everything was looking in good progress, and it wasn't long before Alayna would be there herself.

Most of Alayna's friends were in Slytherin house, but there were a few from other houses who he'd managed to sneak in. He was sure there'd be at least one person who had something to say about that, but he wouldn't let them ruin what was going to be, hopefully, a very memorable night for her.

"Burke - I'd asked you to put candles on that cake half an hour ago. Will you see to it already?" he snapped impatiently to Hector, getting cranky with some of his 'help'.

Hector glanced up at Ptolemy from his position on one of the couches, sighing. He had been lounging there for quite some time, and Ptolemy seemed far too preoccupied to notice, until now.

"Very well... as long as you calm down. You're acting like a middle-aged housewife..."

He got up off his seat as Rowle uttered an impertinent grunt, and shifted off elsewhere.

Why should he care about Ptolemy and a girl who couldn't shut her legs? He was sat in the common room, saying that he had been helping, when he'd barely lifted a finger. Now he was lying on one of the couches, wand pointing up to the ceiling and using magic to rearrange the balloons to spell rude words. At one point he'd managed to get them to spell out 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY SLUT', but some draught caught them again and it was messed up. Shame.

Bellona was chuckling at what Parzival was doing.

"We should fill some with troll blood and pop them when she walks underneath," she told him quietly, snickering.

Meredith was helping ptolemy.set up for Alaynas party. She was actually excited for the event. And maybe it would make Ptolemy see her in a different light. She was setting up some decorations when she heard Lestrange little comment, "You will do no such thing. Ptolemy is working really hard on this and you will not ruin it for him. Do I make myself clear?"

@Bellona Lestrange @Parzival Rowle

"Ooooh~ someone's got a crush. I'll tell Alayna, she'd definitely want to know."

Bellona laughed as she eyed over Meredith, folding her arms across her chest smugly.

"It was only a joke anyway, Riddle. I wouldn't want any to splash on me by accident, after all."

@Meredith Riddle

Meredith just rolled her eyes and went back to setting up the decorations. Crush. As if. Bella has to be on some.type of drug to think she would have a crush on Ptolemy Rowle. She was rather late with Alayna, much like Mackenzie, and she would never even think of trying got sleep with her boyfriend. No matter how cute he was.

"Thank you for all of this, Meredith," Ptolemy said, smiling at her as she set up some decorations. "Unlike some people, you've helped me a great deal. I never would have been able to set up the food like that."

As he spoke to her, his eyes wandered to his brother being a couch potato. Bellona Lestrange was giggling and flirting with him, but he seemed more interested in the ceiling. Looking up, he saw what he had done and sent a sharp stinging hex at him.

@Meredith Riddle

Thius had been roped into helping despite his continually sour feelings towards Alayna; no matter how much he desired to call her and Ptolemy out for turning into blood traitor sympathizers, nobody would let him get away with ruining the party.

At the present moment, he wasn't enjoying himself. He hid himself near the steps that led to the dorms looking like a frightened puppy.

20... 25... 30...

Although she liked Parzival, she never got any response from him that could indicate attraction. She wasn't too put out by it, as he didn't seem to respond to anyone else in that way either. He said he was going to try and steal one of the cupcakes from the display, so Bellona laughed and left him to it. Perhaps it was a good time to go up to her dormitory and get the present labelled 'from Ptolemy xxx', but it was actually a cheap, tacky, ugly brown scarf that she'd got from an old lady's clothing catalogue.

So she went towards the steps, and saw Melanthius sat there, looking very shy and stand-offish.

"Thius," she said, smirking, "I think Ptolemy left one of his presents upstairs, so I'm going to be a helping hand and fetch it for him. Want to come?"

@Melanthius Burke

45... 50... 55...

He continued to mentally count as it'd be too attention-drawing if he did his ritual out loud for his entire social group to hear. His train of thought was disrupted the morning he heard Bellona.

"Hello, Bellona," Thius greeted softly, glancing up at her. Although the party wasn't held for her, she appeared so lovely, as if the spotlight should've been on her instead. A grin appeared on his face naturally.

55... 55... 55...

Nodding, he got up and brushed off his trousers. "It'd be quite preferable to hearing them."

Meredith, like the rest of her siblings, was so trashy. He couldn't bear to listen to her.

@Bellona Lestrange

Dahlia had agreed to help with the little party. Of course, she had been sure to let Ptolemy know that he would owe her a favor for her hand in the whole thing. Her potions didn’t come cheap, after all! Though, she had really welcomed the challenge of getting the potions just right. It was uncharted territory to her but she had been able to figure it out in the short time she had been allotted. Now she had each potion bottle in her bag as she walked into the Slytherin common room and glanced around. It wasn’t hard to spot Ptolemy over by the cake and she approached him and pulled a potion bottle from her bag. It was labeled in a beautiful scroll. ”I assume either you or one of your friends can manage to follow the directions on the bottles to open these in the proper order? I added a little something extra as well.” she handed him a few more bottles with the same scroll written on them in her neat handwriting. She was very proud of her little creations. She had even been able to get it to have almost an amortentia type aspect where once the bottles were unstoppered they would release a scent that was entirely pleasant to all who smelled them even if it didn’t have the actual love potion effect if drank.

@Ptolemy Rowle

While her sister was out treating Alayna's to a girl day, Aquila was in the Slytherin common room taking test shots of the decorations and food that were put out before everyone would get to it. She absolutely loved surprise parties! She would just have to figure out her spot to get the best picture of the birthday girl whenever she arrived...

Meredith smiled as Ptolemy complimented her effort, "Of course, Rowle. I'm quite skilled at alot of things." She then waved her wand, to make some of the cupcakes float above the table. A nice touch, if you asked her. "Do you know when Carina will be bringing her?" She wanted to make sure she had everything ready by the time Alayna arrived.

@Ptolemy Rowle

Bellona giggled and took hold of his hand, guiding him upstairs. They went towards the girl's dormitories, however, and Bellona pushed through the door without warning. One of the girls in there shrieked, having just taken off her blouse, and was hurriedly covering herself with it. "Bellona! What's he doing in here?!"

"Oh shut up, as if you have anything worth hiding."

She grabbed the present under her bed and showed it to Thius, as her dorm mate cursed her and rushed out from the room.

"I got this from a catalogue my Grandmother uses. You'll just have to trust me that it's hideous. And look at the tag," she showed him the wrapped present, and the tag that read 'Love from Ptolemy xxx'.

@Melanthius Burke

Smiling, he glanced at the clock on the wall.

"In around quarter of an hour. Carina should message me when they're getting close," he explained, before Dahlia Travers approached them. Turning to her, he glanced at the bottles she was showing him, then back to her, and grinned.

"My my, you've certainly outdone yourself, Dahlia," he said, taking the bottle and glancing over the instructions. "Well... you are my very good friend, are you not?" he asked pointedly, smiling to appeal to her good nature. If it was actually there. Perhaps it was, but she usually asked for something in return. Dahlia was always very business-like in her affairs, whether it was in her work or with her relationships with others.

@Dahlia Travers @Meredith Riddle

Thius pursed his lips as he watched Bellona's dorm mate run out frantically; was she still wearing a training brassiere? "Is your dorm mate always so unwelcoming?"

Surely a good lady would always be prepared for any sort of guest?

Stepping closer, he examined the tag and cackled. "That'll definitely show her... As I recall, wasn't Ptolemy trying to get Atticus to return for the party? I haven't seen any sign of his presence all day..."

At least there was now two mistakes that could be pinned on Rowle. That was what he got for letting Alayna spew and associate with filth.

@Bellona Lestrange

Discordia was escorted into the room by one of her other numerous siblings with her hands restrained. It was a shame, such a shame... She was going to be on her best behavior after all. If she managed to fix one of her peers, surely that'd be a cause for celebration?

Gazing around, she took a seat on one of the amchairs and stared off into the distance.

Arriving from the dormitories, Aramis glanced around dubiously at the change in decor. The usual dark, yet handsome common room was now full of colour, balloons and a feast; but he had absolutely no idea what the occasion was. He had been rather elusive as of late, keeping himself to himself, using the villagers as his prey instead of gambling with the youth in the castle. So what was all this?

Spotting a girl who was taking photographs of... a table... Aramis approached her.

"What's all this about?"

@Aquila Malfoy

Turning over to one of the vampire twins, she took a picture of him as well and replied, "Ptolemy's throwing a surprise birthday party for Alayna, and I'm the photographer!"

She still wasn't fond of Ptolemy, but at least it wasn't her sister he knocked up...

"It's going to be so fun!"

@Aramis Lestoat

"She's full of herself," Bellona commented, rolling her eyes. "I doubt he'd come. Why miss the opportunity of a lifetime? If he stays over there, he can celebrate his birthday by himself and not have her taking over the show all the time."

Taking the wrapped present, she walked out of the dormitory again, expecting him to follow.

"Not to say that I actually like Atticus Nott. He's weird."

@Melanthius Burke

"It is their first birthday since he returned from that school," Thius stated as he followed her out. "So, I figured he'd make a visit for that. What would be more important than that to sideline his own twin sister?"

Hmmm...

It was rather pleasant to think about; just how much more of this party could end up not being in Alayna's favor?

"I heard he got up to very strange stuff with Potter, and the fact he's into Potter is just the tip of the iceberg of his weirdness..."

How was he Theodore Nott's son?

As they headed back down, he lowered his voice into a whisper and joked, "What if she can't enjoy the party from being too nauseous? All that effort for nothing... He might as well have co-hosted it with Moaning Myrtle."

@Bellona Lestrange

Dahlia raised a brow at Ptolemy’s obvious flattery. Of course, just her bringing the potions would not be enough for him. He always wanted all that he could get for the price he agreed to pay. Sure, it was such a small thing for her to open the vials when Alayna came in but what did he think she was? She wasn’t one of his little cronies to do his bidding. A small humph sound left her lips. ”friend of not, I brought the potions, I completed my end of the deal. I don’t have the patience or desire to waste standing here waiting for her to show up when I could be otherwise engaged instead.” she wasn’t amused that he was trying to use whatever type of friendship they might or might not have to rope her into doing his bidding. Or maybe she was just in a foul mood because no one bothered to do anything like this for her birthday ever… ”Im sure Miss Riddle here would be more than capable. Ravenclaws are known for their intelligence after all. And the two of you seem rather close that she would probably not object to the little favor.” she said with a shrug.

@Ptolemy Rowle  @Meredith Riddle

"Potter is vile!" she agreed, "How anyone could find him attractive..." All the Potters were vile to her, although Albus wasn't too bad. At least he had rejected Mackenzie Riddle in an extremely embarrassing way, which pleased her greatly. "One good thing that Alayna did was terrorise him enough to drop out of school."

Perhaps if she could just return to that version of herself... she might actually like her.

"Sick all over the cake and the banners. What a shame!" she giggled, staying close to him as she slipped the present into the pile of gifts. "Urgh. Why is the vampire here?"

@Melanthius Burke

"Fair enough," he commented, knowing that he was pushing his luck. "But you shall stay for the party, won't you? There's plenty to eat, and I do have champagne - real champagne - but it must be kept under the table, you understand."

Although they were of age, they weren't supposed to be consuming alcohol. That's why there was the non-alcoholic decoy bottles, and the real stuff kept under wraps.

He glanced at Meredith following her suggestion, and Ptolemy positively gleamed at her. "Why yes, Meredith. Would you be keen to do me the favour?"

@Meredith Riddle @Dahlia Travers