Post by Sylph on Dec 29, 2007 15:35:50 GMT -5
It was New Year's Eve. Alright, so perhaps not the definite end of year celebration - the standard western calendar has its faults, after all - but still the biggest excuse for a party at Firefox since the start of term. All of the hard work and preparations the staff of Firefox had gone through to get everything up and running had finally come to fruition. The Feasting Hall looked absolutely spectacular. The room was lit primarily by the peaceful light coming off of the dance floor, resembling silver ice just as it had in September, and which took up the entire space between the Headmaster’s podium and the doorway, though there were also faint, icicle-shaped lights - also in silver - around all four walls. The tables had been transfigured into smaller and multiple versions of themselves for people to sit and eat between dances, and each was given its own compliment of bright cheerful balloons, one quarter of the hall in each of red, yellow, green and blue for each of the houses. The ceiling, usually a magical painting of peace, was now bewitched to look like an inky night sky across which magnificent fireworks popped and snapped and fizzed. Magically drawn golden lines formed the background to these man-made bursts of colour, linking the stars and creating a sea of constellations.
Sylph sat at the head of the staff table (which had retained its original size) that evening, for Talon would not be joining the festivities. What the headmaster had been up to in recent weeks was quite beyond his deputy, but Sylph was fully capable of organising a shindig - and while this one required some form of dress robes to be worn there was much less reason to be worried about one's appearance; this was a masquerade ball. Costumes were not necessary - though they had been encouraged - as the ball had been arranged on fairly short notice, but masks were a must. Sylph had seen some quite elaborate ones being made by some Ravenclaw second years that morning, - feathers and wire and all sorts - but she herself had gone for something slightly more understated - though not by much.
Glittering green eyes peered out from the two small slits in a bright red and orange mask that was arranged as a roaring fire, tongues of flame rushing past her hair and cheeks in an eye catching blaze of colour and shape. Her robes were equally as vivid and shining, all shades of warmth and heat captured within them, and hugged her tall and lanky figure. She looked like a faerie of flame. Even her usually electric purple hair had been dyed crimson for the evening and pushed back to add to her already above average height. She sat and waited for the students to file in, some with partners, some in groups, some stag and when the hall was filled with the laughter and chatter of hundreds of teens she stood and cleared her throat in a rather ungraceful way. There was something about the headmasters' podium which magically enhanced one's every noise, as became clear when every head in the place turned toward her and giggled at their deputy headmistress' get-up.
"Alright you lot," Sylph began chirpily, her voice cutting through the amusement with ease. "It's New Year's Eve and you don't look a lot more sensible. But that's the idea! Now," she went on, glancing at a golden time piece in front of her. "The time is currently at quarter to nine in the evening, which gives us another three hours and fifteen minutes to get nicely silly before we usher in another sane and sober year." Her bizarrely bright eyes glittered and glimmered through her mask and she ran a hand through her cherry coloured hair as she grinned at this, knowing full well that everyone took this as a joke. Sylph was tough, but she was by no means staid or sedate.
"Now, before I get old and boring," she twinkled. "I'll get to the point. Be back here for midnight, I can assure you there'll be some sights to see by then - not least our very own Professor Divine dancing the fandango, at least if we get enough beverages in her. Now. LET THE DANCE BEGIN!" At the masked witch's words, the hall blazed as if lit for a bare instant by a thousand candles, and the party had begun.
Sylph sat at the head of the staff table (which had retained its original size) that evening, for Talon would not be joining the festivities. What the headmaster had been up to in recent weeks was quite beyond his deputy, but Sylph was fully capable of organising a shindig - and while this one required some form of dress robes to be worn there was much less reason to be worried about one's appearance; this was a masquerade ball. Costumes were not necessary - though they had been encouraged - as the ball had been arranged on fairly short notice, but masks were a must. Sylph had seen some quite elaborate ones being made by some Ravenclaw second years that morning, - feathers and wire and all sorts - but she herself had gone for something slightly more understated - though not by much.
Glittering green eyes peered out from the two small slits in a bright red and orange mask that was arranged as a roaring fire, tongues of flame rushing past her hair and cheeks in an eye catching blaze of colour and shape. Her robes were equally as vivid and shining, all shades of warmth and heat captured within them, and hugged her tall and lanky figure. She looked like a faerie of flame. Even her usually electric purple hair had been dyed crimson for the evening and pushed back to add to her already above average height. She sat and waited for the students to file in, some with partners, some in groups, some stag and when the hall was filled with the laughter and chatter of hundreds of teens she stood and cleared her throat in a rather ungraceful way. There was something about the headmasters' podium which magically enhanced one's every noise, as became clear when every head in the place turned toward her and giggled at their deputy headmistress' get-up.
"Alright you lot," Sylph began chirpily, her voice cutting through the amusement with ease. "It's New Year's Eve and you don't look a lot more sensible. But that's the idea! Now," she went on, glancing at a golden time piece in front of her. "The time is currently at quarter to nine in the evening, which gives us another three hours and fifteen minutes to get nicely silly before we usher in another sane and sober year." Her bizarrely bright eyes glittered and glimmered through her mask and she ran a hand through her cherry coloured hair as she grinned at this, knowing full well that everyone took this as a joke. Sylph was tough, but she was by no means staid or sedate.
"Now, before I get old and boring," she twinkled. "I'll get to the point. Be back here for midnight, I can assure you there'll be some sights to see by then - not least our very own Professor Divine dancing the fandango, at least if we get enough beverages in her. Now. LET THE DANCE BEGIN!" At the masked witch's words, the hall blazed as if lit for a bare instant by a thousand candles, and the party had begun.
