July 31st, 1891 — London Ballroom

There were a dozen reasons why it had been a terrible idea to pretend to be Ruby the first time it had happened, but Topaz had been able to overcome them in her mind because it had been framed as though she were doing Ruby a favor. Ruby wanted to go see Mr. Zabini, and it was only going to happen once and it might be terribly important for her future, so it was the least Topaz could do to cover for her for a few hours. She could tolerate the risk of being found out and of embarrassing herself and possibly of worrying her father if it was all for Ruby's sake.

Tonight, she had no such excuses. She wasn't giving Ruby a cover to do something more interesting — in fact, Ruby didn't even know she was doing this. Topaz had waited until Ruby had departed for Demelza and Aunt Evelyn's house, where she was going to get ready prior to departing for another ball, before Topaz had even so much as brushed her hair. She'd stolen one of Ruby's gowns and some of her accessories, dressed herself, and snuck down the stairs on tiptoe to reach the floo. And she had no reason for deceiving her father or stealing Ruby's things or lying to the host when she showed up for the evening with Ruby's invitation in hand. No reason except that she wanted to be here, and here she was.

It was no surprise that Ruby had chosen the other event when she had two competing invitation on this evening, because Mr. Zabini was most likely attending the other, but as far as Topaz was concerned this event was superior in every other way. It was a grand ballroom in London, and therewere illusions and charms everywhere which captivated Topaz's imagination. She'd expected that this would be a truly magical event from the charm on the invitation itself, and on arriving she wasn't disappointed. The wallpaper on the edges of the ballroom was a living scene, safari animals moving through jungle vines, and occasionally one would walk through the edge of the wall and out towards the dance floor. They were illusory and non-corporeal as far as Topaz knew, but it was a handy bit of spell work all the same.

She had barely made a round of the ballroom when she spotted a familiar face. Topaz hesitated, unsure whether or not she ought to approach Mr. Browne. She oughtn't to draw too much attention to herself tonight (particularly as she was without even a guise of a chaperone and someone might notice if she found herself in the center of too many conversations), but suppose he saw her? Suppose he noticed that she'd noticed him, and thought she was avoiding him because she hadn't said hello? Wouldn't that be worse? Yes, it certainly would — being perceived as rude would make her attendance tonight more of a spectacle than it ought to be. She ought to say something to him. Definitely.

And she would, just as soon as she found the courage. For the moment, she changed directions and sought out a glass of champagne.

---

Of course she was watching him as she moved away, though she was trying not to. She couldn't help it; every few steps she would glance back just to check that he hadn't taken notice of her yet. Just when she thought she might have been in the clear, he disengaged from the conversation he'd been a part of and headed in precisely her direction. Drat!

He likely wasn't headed towards her at all, but rather to the table of champagne glasses. She was standing right besides it by this point, and it was a much larger target than she was. All the same, she was rather panicked. What to do now? She was going to talk to him, but she hadn't figured out what to say yet. She hadn't expected to see him here tonight, so she hadn't thought through any potential conversation at all. That was foolish of her, she realized now. She'd had no experience of society to work from, though, and neither Ruby nor Delight were particularly useful resources on that front, either. How was she supposed to know how likely it was to converse with the same man twice in a season? Well, phrased like that she really ought to have known it was possible, but since she was only going to two events in the whole year it hardly seemed likely! And now she was stuck. He was approaching and she had no idea what to do. Her dress was too fancy for her to try and duck under the champagne table, but any other direction chanced crossing his path before she could safely disappear into the crowd. She knew spells that could turn her invisible, and she had her wand on her, but she knew better than to try. She'd never been able to do any complicated magic in public, unless she'd practiced and rehearsed it a dozen times in her head first.

She was going to have to talk to him.

Topaz drew herself up taller (more Ruby's posture than her own, but she needed the added confidence) and steeled herself. He was close enough now that she could have called out to him, though of course she wouldn't. That wasn't the sort of thing that was done in ballrooms, and it wasn't necessary. He'd see her any minute now.

Losing her courage for it at the last minute, Topaz whirled around in the hopes that perhaps Mr. Browne might not recognize her from behind — and accidentally spilled her champagne all over another woman when she crashed into her.

---

Topaz's mouth fell into an o, the shape mirrored in her eyes as she took in the sight of the woman she'd just dumped champagne on. Before she could summon up the wit to say anything (and thankfully before she could be accosted by the woman herself), Mr. Browne had swept gracefully into the conversation and gallantly offered a handkerchief. Topaz was grateful for the interruption but simultaneously mortified that it had been needed (and that he had been watching closely enough to be aware that it was needed). If they had been more closely acquainted, she would have liked nothing more than to have latched onto his arm and let him lead her away into the crowd, but as it stood that would have been terribly presumptuous of her. Who was to say he even remembered their conversation from the ball earlier that summer, anyway? Maybe he was just the sort of gentleman who would always come to the aid of a lady in distress.

(Except he did remember, because he'd started to say her name before he switched to the young lady. This almost-spoken word gave her a thrill of nerves that she didn't know how to place).

"No, of course not. My apologies," she managed to bluster towards the woman. The conversation continued between the three of them for another few seconds, during which Topaz was hardly aware of what she or either of her conversation partners said. She was instead fixated on the realization that in just a moment she was going to be left with the decision to either stay and talk with Mr. Browne, or make another stupid excuse to bolt. She didn't feel she had the courage to stay, but it seemed it would take more courage to leave — she remembered how awful she'd felt after having to turn down his request to dance at the last ball, and she couldn't stomach the idea of knowingly disappointing him again.

The other young woman had cleaned her dress to satisfaction and was leaving, and Topaz made some banal remark as she did so. Then it was the moment of truth: she and Mr. Browne had been left alone in their conversational bubble, which provided just as much pressure to speak to each other (perhaps moreso) than if they had been alone in a parlor together. Topaz looked at him and tried to smile, but between her nerves at how this conversation might unfold and her conviction that she had somehow already ruined it, she wasn't sure how genuine it managed to look. "Hello," she said, and was quite at a loss for anything else.

---

A bit shaken was a charitable way to phrase it, but she ought to have expected no less. Mr. Browne had shown himself to be nothing if not chivalrous in all of their interactions so far. She had been an absurd mess, was the truth of things. He must have noticed her at the table turning so quickly to get away from him, since he'd been so swift to come in and offer assistance. She could not pretend now that she'd merely been going about her evening when she'd run into Miss... Topaz had already forgotten her name, distracted as she'd been during the conversation. Had they even exchanged introductions? She couldn't be sure.

"I'm so terribly sorry," she said, before she could think better of it. She probably ought to have kept on pretending nothing had happened and that she hadn't been avoiding him, because that was the polite thing to do, but she was too mortified to keep it up. "This simply isn't how I'd thought the night would go at all."

---

Topaz recognized that he was making a joke, but it was one she was utterly unable to relate to. Compared to the rest of her life since fourteen, there was nothing at all about tonight (or any night she had left her home for such an engagement) that could be described as tedious. This was the most exciting thing that happened to Topaz — or, rather, it was the only thing that happened to her that contained any degree of positive excitement. One might describe her thrice-a-month forays to the Ministry holding cells as exciting without being a liar, but it wasn't the same sort of thing at all.

She couldn't say that, but Ruby was new enough to society that Topaz thought she could get away with expressing some of the sentiment all the same. "Perhaps I might find it so had I attended as many balls as you have, Mr. Browne," she said with a hesitant smile. "But at this stage I think I should be quite content with a predictable evening, if it were of the predictably perfect variety."

---

Topaz knew exactly what she would like to happen next, but she hesitated, pressing her tongue against the back of her teeth. She may not have been as formally trained in etiquette as Delight or Ruby (why would it have been a focus of her at-home studies when it was so unlikely to be relevant to her life?) but even she knew that a lady could not ask a gentleman for certain things. Certain things like a dance. She'd learned to waltz and she'd practice in her bedroom every time Ruby was gone for more than ten minutes, and she'd done it exactly for this reason, but she couldn't start this off without him asking her.

She considered. "The first time we met I had the misfortune of a broken shoe," she said carefully. This was not true, but it had been the excuse she gave him at the time for declining his offer to dance with her. Hopefully he remembered, because if not she was going to sound rather stupid now. "My shoes are both quite whole tonight."

---

Topaz's face lit up, though whether she was reacting more to his words or to the apparently genuine excitement on his face she could not have said. She was excited to dance with someone other than her father in their living room, and she also felt (perhaps childishly) proud of the fact that she'd made him smile like that. "I would be delighted," she said, offering him her hand.

---