A Winter's Ball | OPEN TO ALL

[Deleted]

It hadn’t taken much convincing to get her grandmother and the rest of the family to agree to let her host a Winter Ball in the Palace ballroom. With everything that happened over the summer, with Edmund’s death and all the fall out of that, it seemed like a good time to give both the royal family and the wizarding world an occasion to come together over something happy and joyous. Lusie had taken on all the prep and planning. She was, after all, an aspiring diplomat and loved the idea of helping two communities come together.

Invitations had gone out the first week of December via Owl post to all students at Hogwarts and a vast majority of the Wizarding families. Everyone was invited. There were also quite a few muggles in attendance, only ones who knew about the existence of the wizarding world, the royal family members from England, the prime minister, and any other members of parliament who were in the know. Lusie wanted it to be inclusive and a chance to network as much as a chance to rejoice.

The ballroom was formally decorated by a set of muggle staff who would not be in attendance. They ended up hiring some wait staff from the wizarding world for the party, and a wizard chef as well. However, the decor came up nicely, white linens, a huge white Christmas tree, decorated with silver and gold ornaments, and white and gold garlands and ribbons on the walls. The ballroom was already nice with it’s marble floor and high ceilings with chandeliers well placed around the room, but the added decor made it feel like Christmas. As a final touch because the guests began to arrive, she enchanted the ceiling to make it look like it was snowing, just as the great hall at Hogwarts looked.

As people began to flock in, Lusie couldn’t help but hope that the night would be as magical as the ballroom.

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Y'all know the drill! This thread is an open thread to everyone in attendance of the ball. Everyone is invited, students and adults alike. If you want more specific threads or more in depth conversations, feel free to make your own thread in this board!

(Tagging OOC accounts because I can't be bothered to tag everyone like y'all do - how do you do it?!) Ali  Admin Sora co-admin lisa SUZIE mod audrey @kierra  @puck  COLIN!  @rissy  Other TJ  haise's moving castle Chanel dez Sophi @jess  @sephy  @artykinz  mod vanessa  @aluke  SAMUEL LEONHARD VECTOR  @garnet  @jessisstillhere  lula - even if you weren't tagged, your characters are invited!! 

Have fun!! 

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

In comparison to some of her peers, Penelope Bainbridge was relatively accustomed to the non-magical world, too. With a Muggle father, she knew how the non-magical world worked a little bit better than some people in the magical world did, although she wouldn't have considered herself an expert in Muggle life. There were Muggle-born students at Hogwarts, of course, and that included the Windsors. (Well, it was only Lusie, of the four siblings, who was still in school, and Edmund had been killed over the summer…) Sometimes it was a little bit weird to remember that they were actual royalty, especially when she received an invitation to a ball.

There had been the Yule Ball and various other dances at Hogwarts in her time there, but it was something else to be invited to an actual, royal ball. She knew that the Windsors would be careful to mask wizarding secrecy; they wouldn't have done anything without the Ministry's involvement, and she assumed that the guest list—in addition to however many students at Hogwarts had been invited—would include a veritable "who's who" of their magical world, as well.

For that reason, there was considerable pressure to look her best, and Penelope arrived wearing a new set of dress robes—a long, flouncy white gown with flowers overlaid on it—because what else was she supposed to wear to a royal ball if not something that made her feel a little bit like a princess herself? She carried a purse with her wand inside it, just in case, and found herself before much longer inside a room much more visually stunning than even the Great Hall at Hogwarts. There were so many people there, including quite a few she didn't recognize, but of course she knew that she would have to find Lusie to thank her for the invitation.

@lusie