X's on the back of your hands (f/e)

[Taylor]

Salazar pressed the colorless mask to his face lightly, adjusting the tie so it was straight. Godric had bribed him to go to this ball thing what ever it was. What Salazar received? Well, that was a surprise for after the ball. Yawning, he decided to loosen his tie by a lot.

Looking in the mirror, the mask had suddenly turned red. Okay. Cool. Wait. Did they have to go with students too? If so, this was going to be horrible. He didn't have any part in setting this thing up. Nodding slowly, Salazar headed to the Great Hall, realizing the halls were empty.

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[Dea]

Rowena adjusted her hair, ever so slightly. She straightened her back, and made sure everything was okay. She looked good, if she did say so herself.

Crossing her room, she picked up her mask, which turned red upon her touch. She placed it on her face, adjusting it just so. She adored masquerade balls, for the sheer fact you could disguise herself.

Upon exiting the room, she found a few pupils moaning that they didn't know who their partners were. She joined in the conversation, much to their surprise. "I don't know who mine is, either. So suck it up, and try to enjoy it," she said, smiling at their slightly shocked expressions.

They just nodded vigorously, upon being addressed by their head of house.

She continued out of the portrait hole, and glided down the corridor, until she reached the Great Hall. She entered, realising no pupils were there. Only teachers. And one with a red mask.

She had a sinking feeling she knew who this was. She stepped closer. Yep. She knew that nose anywhere.

"Just who I always wanted to be stuck with!" She said, with mock enthusiasm, voice dripping with sarcasm.

[Haine]

"I got it."
"Nnn?"
"We break each other's legs."
"As much as I hate to say it, Gryffindork, that idea is genius."
"I thought so too, Annie."
"Can I break your legs first?"
"On second thoughts, how about we just don't turn up?"

Godric and Anatole were both hiding in the the astronomy tower. Why? To explain that, we must go back about roughly fifteen minutes.

Godric was getting ready for the ball. Well, sort of. He had gotten distracted by finding a mouse in his room (Courtesy once again of Salazar, no doubt) and had gone to look for the broom to beat the little bugger with.
Someone had taken the broom. No one knew who.
So Godric (still refusing point blank to finish getting ready with the vermin watching) had to go round almost the whole castle looking for the broom, which was what lead him to the astronomy tower. There, right next to Anatole's desk, was the aforementioned rodent killer, not to mention a clear mask.
This being Godric, he obviously couldn't just get the broom and leave. No, he had to be nosy. Which meant playing with the mask.
As if upon his touch, the clear mask turned black.
Interesting.

He then left with the broom and went to finish getting changed. Godric came back to find his own mask had turned black too.
...
......
Shit.

He grabbed the mask and ran as fast as he could to the astronomy tower. It was not empty as it had been before- Anatole was now sitting at his desk, marking papers. He had not changed out of his work clothes, nor made any indication that he was planning to any time soon. "What do you want now?" Anatole asked, looking up from the papers momentarily. His eyes locked on the mask in Godric's hand, and then his own. Both men's cries of 'NOOOOOOOOO!' could have probably been heard throughout the whole castle.

Now, back to the present.

"We can't not turn up. They'll hunt us down and drag us."
"How do you know?" Godric asked. For a moment he believed that Anatole was only saying this as he secretly wanted to go. No- that was impossible. Going to the ball would mean Anatole would have to be sociable, which was pretty much never going to happen.
"Because I said that I wasn't going and they threatened to drag me,"
See? Told you it was impossible.
"Ye Gods. They'd- They'd actually make us... dance, wouldn't they?"
Both men shuddered at the prospect.

It's official, they really were screwed.

ooc//Crap.

[zara :]]

Having received her mack earlier that day by owl, Helga had begun busying herself with getting herself ready for the Halloween ball. And, despite the history of witch burnings at this time of the year, Helga couldn't help but be just a tad excited. A masquerade ball, all the better, would lend Helga some social tendencies when no one could see her face. Although her fiery hair could probably be identified by anyone in the castle, the illusion of anonymity was enough to coax Helga into a sociable mood. That and the fact that Godric was going to be there...

Funny, now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen him in the castle since that lovely day in her classroom. Perhaps, maybe, just possibly... No, he wasn't avoiding her... Was he? Oh, for God's sake, she was just being an idiot, as usual. After that, Helga paid no mind to the uneasiness swirling in her mind, and instead focused on charming her hair into the desired style, and putting her dress on, careful not to put it on backwards, an annoying problem she seemed to have ever time she wore anything remotely formal. Perhaps the world just hated her, she would never no. But at least her expectations for the upcoming ball were somewhat happier.

And now, after dressing herself almost two hours early, Helga turned her attention to the colourless mask that sat on her bed, almost mockingly refusing to turn colour. Thus, the staring contest began, with Helga curling up on her bed, propping her elbows up and glaring at the mask. Meanwhile, the mask continued to do nothing for a few seconds. And then more nothing continued to happen. Nothing continued to happen for an hour or so, until, after much staring and swearing on Helga's part, the mask began to change colours. At first, it turned red, then shimmered into a flaming orange, then a canary yellow, a moss green, a night-sky blue, running through the entire rainbow of colours as if it couldn't make up its mind as to what colour it should turn. The mask dulled a little, its lustre lost as the slideshow of colours slowed and eventually stopped, revealing a deep ruby red.

Sighing a little in disappointment, she picked up the ornate mask and turned it over in her hands a few times before finally adjusting it to her face. Checking herself over in the mirror one last time, she all but sprinted out the door. Were it but for her heels she had stupidly she would have been down at the Great Hall much faster. With the heels, she made it there in 15 minutes, and began haphazardly scouring the accumulating crowd for any other red masks. She was momentarily distracted by a faint wailing sound that sounded suspiciously like 'Noooo!!", but soon wended her way through the crowd towards two people sporting red masks.


On one hand, she was relived to see a familiar cascade of black hair, and on the other, she was very much dismayed to see a very large nose sported by none other than Salazar Slytherin. At least Ro was with her.

[Haine]

"So are we just... not going then?" Godric eventually asked, after a long silence in which the two men attempted to recover from the 'dancing' idea.
"Please tell me that you don't actually want to go." was the short reply from Anatole.
"Weeelll..."
"A proper answer, please?"
"Yes. Just not with you."
"Exactly how I feel."
"It's just that they'll notice if both -or one- of us doesn't turn up."
"So what are you suggesting?"
"That we 'lose' our masks."

Anatole stood up from his seat, and started to pace around the office. Even spending time here with the Gryffindork was, in his opinion, much better than actually going down to the great hall tonight and having to at least look like he was enjoying himself. Godric chose to remain seated, waiting anxiously to see if Anatole would go along with this new idea. Even if Anatole said no, Godric decided, he would go down anyway, proclaim that Anatole was dead and then spend the evening trying to steal Helga away from her date.

Perfect plan.

"Fine. We'll use your plan and therefore I don't get dragged down." Anatole eventually said, having lost the will to fight any longer. If he was lucky, Anatole would only have to stay for a few minutes, or long enough so that people had seen that he'd turned up, then he could quietly escape.

And with that, the two went down to the great hall, having left the masks together on Anatole's desk. The other founders were easy to find, their features easily recognisable even with the masks on. Everyone else, on the otherhand, was a completely different matter.
"Hey guys, we've-" Godric started as the two approached, him pulling Anatole along by the arm. He stopped as he caught side of Helga, and was unable to stop himself from staring at her, blushing faintly. He couldn't help it though, she looked beautiful. Anatole had to hold back the urge to hit him, having to now speak for the Gryffindork.

"We've both lost our masks."Anatole finished, then asking the question that had both been on the pair's mind. "Is there any particular reason why all three of you have red masks?"

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[Taylor]

Looking to what ever idiot had just complained loudly, Salazar burst out loudly. Salazar knew that hair, voice and face shape, how couldn't you recognize it when you knew her for a couple of years? Smirking, he walked up to her, examining her quickly.
"Now, aren't you a little bundle of joy?" Salazar asked, a small yawn following it.

Looking around to see who else was were, his eyes caught the color red. And...shit. It was another red mask. And he also knew that red hair. It was Helga.
"Aw, fuck. You get her. You dance. I'll go eat." Salazar said quickly, then quickly looked around to see who else was here.
He didn't see the oddly tall Godders. And that was pretty odd, since most of the people were here already.

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[Dea]

"Of course I am, Sal. You're just a wet blanket. With a big nose."
Yes, insult the nose. Get then Snakey Bastard where it hurts.

Wait. Helga?
Sure enough, Helga approached in her very own red mask.

Salazar was a Medieval Pimp. It was official.

Rowena dismissed Salazar's idea.

"Uh, no. I'm hungry. Don't think you can avoid this, Salazar. As charming as you are, you cannot get away with that. There's obviously been some mix up with the masks. Which isn't surprising, as you were the one supposedly setting this all up. Now either you were just dying to spend time with Helga and I, or you got lazy and got someone else to do it!"

Rowena put together those thoughts so fast it was scary. It was really not normal. Really.

[zara :]]

Helga hung back, watching as Salazar almost tripped over his feet in his haste to escape his two ball dates. Rowena, as always, was one step ahead of him. "Don't think you can avoid this, Salazar. As charming as you are, you cannot get away with that. There's obviously been some mix up with the masks. Which isn't surprising, as you were the one supposedly setting this all up. Now either you were just dying to spend time with Helga and I, or you got lazy and got someone else to do it!"

Leave it to Sally to simultaneously screw up the masks and get out of doing work at the same time. The man had a gift. But she internally groaned as Anatole and Godric approached. It was evident Sally had botched the masks, because no one on earth would ever put Godders and Anatole together as ball partners. It went against the very rules of nature. "What the hell, Sally? How could you mess up the masks for Christ's Sake? All you had to do was put a guy and a girl together, and you couldn't ever get that right!" she exclaimed, motioning wildly at Anatole and Godric, who then announced they had both lost their masks.

Conviniently enough, they were the only two Founders left, so they probably would've been a couple. Damn Sally and his inability to organize the masks. Every since the ball had been announced, she hoped Godric would be her partner. But nope, she was stuck here with Ro and Hogwarts' very own pimp, Sally. She supposed it could have been worse; she could have been Anatole's partner. And that would have been Very, Very Bad. She and Anatole didn't get along very well at all. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he believed women had no place in teaching.

Oh well. Hopefully they'd get it sorted. But first, a confession from Sally was in order. Ro was probably right, though. She always was.

ooc: please don't kill me! I'm sorry it took so long. D:

[Taylor]

Well. This was an awkward situation. Looking to Godric and Anatole, he smirked and said,"Lost? Or left behind?".
Looking to Rowena, he ran a hand through his hair.
"Um. I actually got...busy.. and gave some of the students the chance to pair us up." He said, looking to Godric and Anatole, then to Rowena and Helga.
"And I do not have a big nose." Salazar protesting, looking at Rowena.
Crossing his arms, pouting slightly.

Backing up as Helga started talking, he bit his bottom lip. So maybe trusting the students picking things would be such a good idea.
"Hey! It is not my fault you guys made me choose to sort things. It's common sense." Salazar said, raising an eyebrow.
Yes, that was probably going to get him yelled at. But, it was really not difference.

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