December 22nd, 1888 - Hogwarts Yule Ball

Jack had been on the Hogwarts grounds very rarely - twice, for previous Yule Balls. The Great Hall had not yet lost its wonder for him, and he marveled at the enchanted ceiling even as he lounged against the wall. He was largely uninterested in dancing tonight - he was not going to dance with the students - and had really only come for the drinks and the feeling that came with being in a crowd. He was shadowed in the corner now, sipping a glass of wine. He sensed, more than saw, when someone else moved into 'his' corner, and turned his head to glance at whoever it was who had joined him. He had no idea if they'd even noticed him.

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speaks with a French accent. though jack might sometimes refer to themselves with she/her pronouns, they are always presenting as male and your character should refer to them as such

There was precisely one thing about the Yule Ball that had been enforced upon them that Connie had not expected to despise and, as anticipated, the wine was doing everything in it’s power to lessen her deep ire at having to be here at all. The fact that the Headmaster looked to be similarly suffering didn’t hurt either. If she had to be miserable then at least that dreary bastard did too!

And at least she was here more or less in a supervisory capacity. No one was too interested in her and soon enough the evening would be over and done with and she could get on with having her sad solitary Christmas with only a few teenagers for company.

“Excuse me,” she said sharply, aware she was being ignored by the lumbering man who had bumped into her, making her dart out of the way as best she could to save the rest of her wine. Half had sloshed down her front and only the precaution of wearing a festive burgundy saved her from looking at utter fool. Thankfully there was only one other person in the corner she had been all but rammed into it.

“I don’t suppose you have a handkerchief to hand?”

  

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MJ made me beautiful

Jack turned when he heard the request, already pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket, only to be stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the woman who had joined him in his solitary corner. She was beautiful, with high cut cheekbones and a look of utter irritation on her face. Jack had not expected to see any women so lovely tonight - nearly all the students were too young for him to see them as anything but children - and he was momentarily shocked into silence by the woman's piercing blue eyes and golden blonde hair. He wondered idly if it was as soft as it looked.

Catching himself, Jack proffered the handkerchief to the woman, cursing the red he knew was creeping up his neck. For all his charm, Jack had always blushed terribly and no teacher had ever been able to train him out of it when he had been a debutante.

"Ah, yes," he nearly stuttered, before swallowing and regaining his composure. "That boor of a man must have been blind not to see you."

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Constance Sykes

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   Elladora Black

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speaks with a French accent. though jack might sometimes refer to themselves with she/her pronouns, they are always presenting as male and your character should refer to them as such

Connie smiled wryly at the comment, taking the handkerchief and dabbing aimlessly at her dress. Luckily for her nerves men had stopped seeing her in that particular light a very long time ago but she always held out hope that as a fellow human being she might be worth noting at least. Apparently not.

At least this young man was obliging and polite, a rare combination in one so young as Connie knew only too well, but she doubted he would want to be stuck with her for too much longer. Those cheekbones would put him in high demand amongst the young ladies and she was rather surprised to find him so far out of the way as it was.

“You’re far too kind,” she replied, making one last half-hearted attempt to soak up the wine and coming to the horrible realisation that she would probably have to enlist one of the house elves to help her clean her corset. Connie sighed in resignation, noticing that he seemed to rapidly be becoming the same colour as her dress. “I hope I haven’t disturbed you?”

  

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MJ made me beautiful

Jack got himself together enough to respond when the woman spoke, although his accent was perhaps stronger than it might have been otherwise. "Ah, no. It was not in my plan to dance tonight. These girls, they are all very," he paused, searched for the word, "juvenile, I think." He had been so reluctant to court these past few years not because no woman had caught his eye, but because he was expected to marry a woman younger than him, possibly by many years, and he was not at all eager to do so. He would wait until he was older, he thought, and marry someone closer to his age. If anyone would ever consent to marry him at all, that was.

Jack watched the woman try to dab up the wine and realized, probably around the time she did, that it was most likely a fruitless effort. He pulled his wand from his cane - something he brought only when he did not plan to dance, and an affectation he was allowed only because he was 'foreign' - and held it up. "May I assist you? It is only that my mother, she taught me many cleaning charms. Of course, I- I understand if you prefer that I do not." Jack flushed again, realizing he was being quite presumptive. He was, after all, offering to perform magic on a woman's clothes, and they didn't even know one another's names.

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Constance Sykes

  

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speaks with a French accent. though jack might sometimes refer to themselves with she/her pronouns, they are always presenting as male and your character should refer to them as such

Juvenile was the right word for some of the young ladies in attendance but Connie’s lip twitched at how odd the description sounded from the mouth of somebody who looked as though he had barely left school himself. Not Hogwarts, she would guess from the accent, but perhaps Beauxbatons? And though she doubted it had been long since he’d graced their hallways there was something rather thoughtful about the young man that one didn’t see often in one of his years.

It was a shame really. Such kindness and elfin features wasted on a boy who would likely have the world handed to him regardless of what he looked like or how he behaved – it wasn’t his fault of course, but it was a shame nevertheless.

“Not at all. I’d be quite grateful,” Connie said once she caught sight of the wand. She had left hers in her rooms earlier as it ruined the line of her dress – or so the not-so-friendly portrait of Anne Stanhope that guarded her chambers had told her – so she was rather unprepared. She also had a great dislike for this sort of magic, but that was by-the-by. Merlin, with her sort of luck the poor boy would vanish her corsets away and ruin whatever fiction she was still maintaining.

“Quite the progressive your mother,” she smiled dryly, taking a step closer so he could better reach her clothes. She didn’t especially relish the thought of this little moment, however kindly meant, been seen by any of her colleagues so it was best to be discreet. “I’m fairly sure to this day my brothers don’t know what a broom is for.”

  

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MJ made me beautiful

Jack smiled and waved his want, vanishing the wine spill with a muttered terego. Tucking his wand back into his sleeve, he nodded sharply. "My maman, she was quite insistent I learn such things." That much was true, he had been put through the paces as Jaqueline, regardless of his social class. Mrs Watson had firmly believed that every woman should be self-sufficient around the home, and she had insisted that Jaqueline learn a plethora of household charms.

"She was convinced I would some day 'ave need of such charms." Also true, although Jack's mother had been considering the future of a daughter, not a son. He wondered often if she could see him now, and what she thought of him. He was, after all, lying to everyone he met, and his mother had always valued honesty over all else. "It would seem she was right. Ah. but I 'ave not introduced myself. Jack Watson, at your service, madame."

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speaks with a French accent. though jack might sometimes refer to themselves with she/her pronouns, they are always presenting as male and your character should refer to them as such

The name, unsurprisingly, was not familiar to Connie but she smiled at the introduction nevertheless. She was hardly a sought after woman at parties such as these so it was something of a novelty to go through the motions, albeit twenty years later than would have been useful. And not necessarily from the kind of person she would have wanted attention from, although she might have been able to bear it with more grace if the young men not behaved as though they were entitled to her.

“Constance Sykes. It’s my happy duty to look after the young ladies of Slytherin house,” she added with a wry smile; she considered it a wise decision to make sure her role at the school was known – Merlin help her if she had somehow stumbled across a charming but impoverished youth seeking a rich widow to pay court to!

“I’m glad to say none of them have made quite the show of themselves that I have managed to tonight.” She eyed the remaining wine in her glass and took a speculative sip – apparently being sloshed around in the glass had not spoilt the taste. “I only hope you won’t judge me too harshly.”

  

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MJ made me beautiful

Jack turned to look out at the crowd. "A pleasure. I do not envy you your task, Madam Sykes. I w-" he caught himself, tried for a grin, "the girl's 'oo I knew at this age were devils, every one." He leaned on his cane and swept his eyes across the dance floor. "I do not know much of your 'ouses, but I am told the Slytherin, they are the cunning ones, yes?" He glanced back at Madam Sykes but did not linger. If anyone were to suss him out, it would be the woman who watched young girls for a living. She had an eye for trickery, he imagined, although she looked kind.

"What 'appened to you was entirely the fault of that man, of course. No sense of what 'ee was near."

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Connie laughed at the description of her house, knowing it of old as a moniker they carried but always amused when people trotted it out and she thought of the young ladies she looked after and quite how useless they were at concealing anything at all. They would grow and mature and learn to keep their secrets better but if she had to interrupt one more late night argument borne of secrets being passed around then she might go mad.

Her own secrets she had never revealed to another soul. Apart from those that couldn’t help but know, however she had certainly never said the words out loud.

“People have a tendency to get carried away at these events I suppose,” she agreed with a playful smile. “And unfortunately I cannot be called upon to chaperone the grown men of the world,” she added with a glance over her shoulder that made several strands of her hair come loose. “Though some definitely need a firmer hand.”

  

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MJ made me beautiful

Jack laughed and tried not to fix his eyes on the falling strands of hair. Madam Sykes was beautiful, he had noticed, but entirely inaccessible to him. It was best not to get carried away. That didn't mean his cheeks didn't tint a light pink, of course, but he did manage not to stare.

"I will not argue with you there." Jack may be living as a man, but he did not always relish the all-male company he was therefore prone to keep. Gentlemen's clubs, he had found, were not somewhere he enjoyed - men who could say whatever they wanted tended to say terrible things. "I do wish men would learn to police themselves better," he said in an undertone, not realizing that he had spoken, for a moment, as someone who was not a man.

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speaks with a French accent. though jack might sometimes refer to themselves with she/her pronouns, they are always presenting as male and your character should refer to them as such

It was an odd turn of phrase and one that reminded Connie oddly of how she herself had sometimes been obliged to join in with the other young ladies that were ogling the gentleman and passing comment on their form. She wasn’t at all sure why the words, otherwise innocuous, gave her such a inkling of remembrance and she quickly dismissed it as fanciful.

Perhaps she’d had too much wine already? She had already managed to embarrass herself once and she was loathe to do it again. Especially if she beginning to think unusual things about young men.

“You shall have to lead the charge,” she said with a fond smile. Young Mr Watson was quite the charmer, largely because he seemed to not be trying too hard. Perhaps that had always been her problem? Men who tried a little too hard.

“I should excuse myself I fear. Before our headmaster catches sight of me distracting such a clearly desirable man from young ladies his own age.”

Yes, she had definitely had too much wine.

Jack Watson
(I'm so sorry for being such a trash fire!)

  

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MJ made me beautiful