Dare Meeting

Bella gasped softly and wrapped an arm around Ana's shoulders. "That is amazingly cunning of you, Ana. How did you manage it?"

Ana laughed. "Polyjuice potion. I pretended I was Darien, and then only wrote Vaight on the slip. Darien doesn't even know. And he won't...unless I get selected."

Bella nodded. "Ingenious. But I had and have no desire to enter. Glad you do though. We wouldn't want some French slip or some Russian stiff stealing our title. Besides a Slytherin needs to win this time. And you will, Ana, if you get chosen." She dug into her pocket.
"Here I got this for you." She smiled and handed the fellow Slytherin a little black notebook. "I have one too. They are charmed to connect and whatever is written in one appears in the other. A secret and special form of communication. The password to activate it is "Gryffindor's are all mudbloods", it seemed appropriate, since no prying Gryffindor would say that. What do you think?"

"Awesome!" Ana grinned. "Indeed, I doubt a Gryffindor could lower their 'pride' enough to say that."

Bella snickered. "Can you imagine Diana Casillas saying it? Hilarious. Want to try the notebooks?" she asked, pulling out her own.

"Sure."
Ana extracted a quill from her bag and a small pot of ink.
She muttered the password and began to write.
It would be hilarious if a gryffindor actually said the password...Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs wouldn't have a problem.

Nicolas' eyes grew slightly at the speed the two girls were talking. He was about to correct his cousin's bloodlineage but they'd already switched to the next topic. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't all that much... impressed with Diana's relationship, but not to worry, he already had a plan to remedy that.

However, he could not simply allow the two Slytherins insult his house and his cousin like that. He waved his wand and did a colour changing spell on both of the girls. Wouldn't they be surprise to find their undergarments in fact the colours of the very house they loathe?

((Merci, I was going to do that! The notebook thing! Ahh well...))

((sorry...but then again, you could use it as well. I will not sue...))

Bella chuckled and wrote back...

Most of them wouldn't be curious or stupid enough to pry into our affairs...

Michael wandered up to the door that he'd been told via owl would contain members of the Dare Club. He wasn't quite sure he should trust an anonymous note, but he would bite just because he was practically still known as "that American kid" here. Or at least that was how he felt he was being labeled by others when he wasn't around. The teen didn't really mind it, however: it made him different from the rest, though whether that was for good or ill was beyond him.

As he stepped into the room, having expected to find it empty, Michael surveyed the occupants briefly before closing the door behind him once he was inside. "Um... hi," Michael greeted the others in the room despite having an utter lack of ideas for something else to say.

His wardrobe was casual today, looking rather like he'd just come from a rock concert: leather jacket, a red tanktop charmed to alternate between the English and Japanese spellings of the Quidditch team 'Toyohashi Tengu', bell-bottomed jeans of black, and a pair of motorcycle boots. Of course, the earring and metal cuffs adorned that his ears adorned his ears were present as well; his hair was deliberately messy and slightly gelled.

"Ahh," Nicolas said as the doors opened once again. "Another member. Welcome to Dare Club."

Bella looked up from the notebook and gave Michael her most charming winning smile. She wasn't worried about winning him. After all, she was tall, athletic, beautiful, smart, popular, ahead of her class and totally open to a new boyfriend.

"Hello." She greeted.

((ROFL! Funny stuffs!))

Nicolas scoffed inwardly at the smile the Slytherin girl gave the newcomer. Young love. How pathetic?

"Nicolas, right? Thanks," Michael replied, extending his arm for to prompt a handshake. It was clear that students apparently didn't address each other by their last names where he came from; either that or the practice was uncommon for him in particular.

Michael nodded politely to the girl that returned his greeting, not quite sure what to make of the smile he'd been given. Wasn't she the one from astronomy with the werewolf problem? She looked familiar, at any rate. He'd wait and see if she revealed her name before allowing himself to decide anything further about her.

"So, are we just all hanging out at the moment, or is there an initiation?" he inquired the room as a whole, fully aware of the slight smile that crossed his face at the thought.

Bella rose from her chair and extended her hand. "Bellatrix Rosier. You are Michal Blackwood, aren't you?"

Michael took the offered hand and gave it a firm grip and a brief shake before letting go. 'So, this is her...' he mused, remembering his mental memo that he needed to be wary of her.

"Yeah - that's me. We... uh... we take Astronomy together, don't we?" he replied, then thought a moment. "And History of Magic - you were the one that was, and I quote: 'stuck in a tree for sixty-someodd hours' according to Professor McKevin's game, right?" The memory of his reading both parchments, and the image it conjured in his mind, caused great amusement to openly play about his face.

Bella chuckled. "Yes, but I assure you that I've never been stuck in a tree before. How about you, do you really play an electric guitar? You said you did in class." Her green eyes flamed with curiosity.

"Yeah, I play a bit," he answered simply. "I want to start my own band and pursue music as a career: guitar and lead vocals." Despite the fact that she obviously had something against werewolves when discussing the moon in Astronomy, Michael could go on and on about music without feeling like he'd said too much. In time, he would acquire recognition for his talents. It was this thought of eventual fame that kept him holding on to the dream.

"Mum and Dad wish I wouldn't, though..." he added with a slightly derisive laugh. There was a lot that he wanted to do that they didn't approve of: his hair and ears being just two items on a rather sizable list!

"Parents rarely agree with their children's dreams." Bella muttered, crossing her arms. "A band sounds interesting. So you sing and play the guitar? Amazing." For her credit she sounded impressed.

Michael nodded in agreement to her muttered statement, though wasn't quite sure of the meaning her crossed arms were to represent. At least she sounded impressed - and interested - in his wanting to form a band and pursue a career music.

"Well... I don't have a band yet," he admitted. "My family and I moved here just last year, so I don't really know too many people yet." Michael's facial expression was carefully neutral: not down enough to encourage pity but nowhere near being so chipper that he was on the border of hyperactivity. The move was out of his hands long before the ears even heard it, and he begrudgingly accepted that fact. The only problem was that Michael and his father were not seeing eye to eye on a lot of different things, which was very much like adding salt to a wound.

"Oh, I see. So where are you from?" Bella asked. She was starting to like him. Good facial features control...emotional control. Hmm, he was hard to read, she thought.

Michael regarded her curiously, not quite sure how people here felt about foreigners. "America. We lived in Maine," he replied simply. "Are you from around here?"

Perhaps his overly-tired brain made him mis-judge her, but he could have sworn she was anti-werewolf and hence they would likely bump heads. But at the moment she seemed all right. Michael supposed a friendship could be attempted.

Ana sat back in her chair and watched the exchange with mild interest.
She had no doubt that Bella would win the hufflepuff...She just wondered how long it would take.
Her gaze travelled aimlessly around the room, waiting for someone to talk to her.

"Vaight," Nicolas approached Ana with folded arms. "By your conversation earlier, I take it you aren't too happy with our little star-crossed lovers."

"Casillas."
Ana crossed her legs.
"And when did you start eavesdropping on private conversations? Is it a hobby or a family trade?"
She brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

"It isn't eavesdropping when if you can hear it across the room without any effort." Nicolas countered. "Anyway, I have a plan..."