lydiaannesley
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Post by lydiaannesley on Sept 10, 2016 6:00:58 GMT
The Annesley Estate was bustling with activity; newly hired servants and house elves bustled about the grounds and manor, carrying trays of food and drinks. Tables were set up all over the garden and magicked candles were being raised into the air to serve as the sparkling, dreamy lighting. Lydia Annesley watched from her bedroom window as it all took place, and couldn't help but feel a small thrill of excitement. Her parents threw a large get-together for the finest families in Europe each August as a culmination of the summer. Though it was a white tie affair, it was anything but stuffy; the drinks flowed freely, the food was delectable and seemingly endless, and everyone was expected to have an absolutely wild time. Soon, one of the three musical groups scheduled for the evening would begin setting up and in merely an hour, the guests would begin to arrive from all over. It was assumed the Lydia's grandparents, both the Annesleys and the Kamelancs, would be the first guests to arrive. Shortly after, her mother's sister, husband and two children would arrive. Selene Kamelanc had done exceptionally well for herself and married a Greengrass, something her parents were very proud of. Lydia liked her cousins, though she tended to find Daphne a bit stuck up and Astoria to be a bit of a baby. Regardless, she was happy to have her family around, especially as her Kamelanc grandparents had recently moved back to Morocco. There was a soft knock on her bedroom door. "Come in!" Lydia sang, turning from the window. Her mother poked her head in and smiled broadly at her daughter. "Lydia, you look lovely," Apollonia crossed the room and kissed Lydia gently on the cheek. "Mum, so do you! That's a beautiful dress," Lydia beamed; she'd absolutely inherited her good looks from her mother and Apollonia looked excessively good for her age with her dark brown, slightly streaked with gray, hair and black eyes. "Thank you, ma cher. Your grandparents will be here soon; come down, won't you?" she said, walking out of the room. "Yes! I'll be there in a moment!" Lydia replied. She made a few minor adjustments to the flowers in her hair and gracefully glided out of her large bedroom to the staircase, straightening her dress as she went. She'd talked her mother into charming the flowers on it to open and shut slowly, a more subtle magicked look than most designers did. Lyida looked good and she knew it. She entered the parlor just as her Grandmama and Grandfather Annesley Apparated into the garden. A smile crept up over her face and refused to budge; the night was going to be just magical, she knew it. |
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Blaise Zabini
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Post by Blaise Zabini on Sept 11, 2016 0:01:31 GMT
Even though summer was beginning to fade away, the fun was only just beginning. Especially if you were considered prestigious pure-blood family line.
Generally speaking, pure bloods were the elite of the magical realm. Many pure bloods could trace their family lines all the way back to before medieval times, and therefor were most likely related to the most influential witches and wizards of all time- at least the ones that mattered, anyway.
There were only several important things to know about pure-blood families (particularly the Slytherin variety) . Firstly, any family member that was not magical, contaminated the entire family. In that case, the truly pure-blood families were not afraid to talk badly about the contaminated families. Secondly, many truly pure-blooded families were extremely wealthy. Coming from long lines and successful ancestors, these families had their sweet time to build up unimaginable fortunes; and they weren't afraid to flaunt it. Thirdly, they had the best parties.
A young man, the age of sixteen, was sitting in his mother's dining room. It stood at the end of a long hall; vast, dark, and filled with marble. Sometimes he felt very alone in such a big house. It was a wonder why they had such a large wooden table if there were rarely more than three people sitting at it.
He was dressed in an expensive and extremely stylish dark grey suit, which stuck out perfectly against his dark skin. The inside of the jacket matched his undershirt and tie, and of course, pants to match. No good outfit was complete without Italian leather shoes, and a wrist time piece (only for the look, of course...). [[[https://assets.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/20150813193943-trendy-model-fashion-suit-mainstream.jpeg something like this]]]]
One of the young man's feet was firmly placed on the ground in front him, while the other rested on top of his knee. Irritable, he took a look at the watch on his right wrist. His mother had successfully wasted an hour getting ready.
Blaise's dark eyes moved to the fireplace at the opposite end of the hallway. He could floo now if he wanted, but his mother was particular about keeping up appearances....
Just as he began to contemplate whether he should visit her chamber or not, she appeared from the doorway straight ahead of him. Gabrielle Zabini was a slender, curvy woman. Not tall, not short, it was somewhat of a wonder where her son's height came from. She was dressed in a shade of black that matched Blaise's grey.
"I see you're wearing the outfit I chose for you," she cooed as he stood. He nodded silently as she kissed him on the cheek.
"What a fine young gentleman you're becoming. Are you ready?" From behind her, the figure of his mother's boyfriend, Alfonse, loomed in the doorway. He was mysterious, but not as mysterious as the Zabini family history.
"Yes," He responded quietly. She took his hand and gestured for Alfonse to follow. Grabrielle disapparated, and before Blaise could open his eyes he was standing on the front lawn of the Annesley property.
Blaise did not consider himself to have many friends. He knew lots of people, and he spent time with many more than he wanted to (especially at school). A secretive and quiet person, Blaise mostly kept to himself. Most Slytherins would say that he was in the inner circle of Draco Malfoy's gang, which wasn't false. Blaise would probably never admit it, but he didn't consider Draco Malfoy to be his 'friend'. Even though he grew up with Draco, Blaise didn't trust him much. Crabbe and Goyle were too dull for Blaise's taste, but he tolerated them. Pansy was somewhat of a crybaby and fished for attention too frequently, so it was a good thing she was after Draco and not Blaise. If Blaise had a true friend, it was probably Lydia. Sometimes he kept his distance from her, too. There were just some things that people didn't need to know, and Blaise was thankful for that.
Blaise turned away momentarily, a little perturbed, as his mother and her boyfriend briefly kissed. She said something under her breath to Alfonse, and they headed toward the mansion. Blaise lingered momentarily, and then tailed behind them. The sooner he got away from them, the better. It had been nearly all summer since he had spent time with Lydia, and he was looking forward to seeing her again.
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lydiaannesley
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Post by lydiaannesley on Jan 4, 2017 21:44:46 GMT
More and more guests filled the front garden and parlor, but Lydia was searching for only one face: Blaise Zabini. The two of them had never been extremely close, but he was very handsome and Lydia had a sneaking suspicion that he found Draco Malfoy as annoying as she did. Sure enough, she spotted her friend's head out in the garden, alongside his mother and whomever her latest boyfriend was. She excused herself politely from the company of her grandparents and the Greengrass family and darted out.
"Blaise!" Lydia called excitedly, pushing past several groups of people. She hugged him quickly. "How's your summer been? It's been pretty dull here, minus the trip to Morocco we took to see mum's family. It might just be you and I tonight. I'm not sure if the Malfoys will be attending tonight, what with Lucius' current situation..."
She trailed off. Draco's father's recent imprisonment in Azkaban was a fairly embarrassing situation, though her parents had extended an invitation to Narcissa and Draco all the same. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Lydia turned to Blaise's mother with a dazzling smile. "Hello Madame Zabini. How're you this evening? Your dress is just lovely; where did you get it?" She'd known Blaise long enough to know that flattering his mother was in her best interests, especially if they ended up sneaking off and causing trouble later.
"I don't believe I've met your friend." She turned and smiled sweetly at the wizard beside Madame Zabini, "I'm sure you come from an old family though; you look vaguely familiar." This was the part of pretending to be Pureblood that Lydia hated most; the absolute bullshit that came with inquiring about other peoples' lineage. More often than not people made things up about how having a certain nose or eye color meant they were descended from someone important. She often tried to throw strangers a line and suggest that their faces were familiar, making any lies they might need to tell more believable.
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Blaise Zabini
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Post by Blaise Zabini on Jan 6, 2017 22:30:33 GMT
The only good thing about living the pure-blood life were the parties, in Blaise's opinion. The people weren't always great to be around, but the drinks and food were of very high calibre. Blaise had good taste because he grew up with it. Even if he couldn't tolerate the people, he enjoyed being around high class society. There wasn't anything much better than good food and good alcohol, even if you had to be around terrible people to reap the benefit.
The Annesley Estate was extravagant. There were servants everywhere. It was a black tie event that only the finest pure-blooded families were invited to, so of course it tended to be the most sought-out invitation of the year.
Tables were sprinkled about the garden, with magicked-floating candles above each to provide lighting. As Blaise was observing the guests, Lydia appeared.
"My summer has been well," Blaise responded quickly as she hugged him. He had heard the news of the Malfoy family, as his mother was (not unsurprisingly) very close with their family. Quit unsurprisingly, however, was the fact that Draco had not requested to spend more time with Blaise over the summer. It would be interesting to see to what extent Lucius's punishment affected Draco and his well-being.
Blaise's mother glowed as she received her first compliment of the night.
"I'm glad you asked, actually. Alfonse is a designer for only the top-tier wizards and witches, you see. He has connections to all of the top French and Italian designers." Gabrielle kissed her suitor on the cheek.
Alfonse nodded towards Lydia. "If you're interested in fashion, you have probably heard of my work."
"We've better move along darling," Gabrielle cooed at Alfonse. "The hosts have outdone themselves, as usual. It would impolite not to thank them." She took Alfonse's arm, and off they strolled.
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lydiaannesley
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Post by lydiaannesley on Jan 17, 2017 23:51:10 GMT
Lydia turned to Blaise, grimacing as Gabrielle waltzed away. "How do you like this one?" she asked, jerking her head at Alfonse. "He seems a bit pretentious but not too terrible on the whole, as far as middle-aged boyfriends go."
"I'm glad your summer was good. Have you seen Draco since...?" she bit her lip and looked away, snagging two glasses of champagne from a passing tray and handing one to Blaise.
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Blaise Zabini
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Post by Blaise Zabini on Feb 23, 2018 6:44:58 GMT
Blaise watched silently for a moment as his mother traipsed away with the designer. It really hadn't been long since they had been seeing each other, so Blaise didn't know much about Alfonse except for what his mother said the magazines raved about (Blaise didn't have time to read fashion magazines, nor the desire to take interest in such a petty and shallow hobby.)
He shrugged.
"He's alright I suppose. Not any better or any worse than the last half a dozen."
The added perks were many readily available stylists, the latest most desired designs in his closet, and not having to pick out his outfits, but those things also came with priveledged pure-blooded families. Considering his circumstances, Blaise would probably have all of those things anyway purely based on his mother's bank account, and her validation through public appreciation of this facade she led everyone to believe about having the perfect family and the perfect life.
"No, I haven't heard or seen anything of him. Have you?"
Blaise was generally considered to be a fairly close friend of Draco's, on the outside at least. He was often seen with Draco's gang. Even in private, Blaise often proved to be a good friend to Draco; his quiet manner proved good for confidentiality, and Blaise gave unbiased and honest advice most of the time.
It was strange and unusual that Draco didn't call on their friendship to spend more time this summer, but knowing Lucius' predicament made it easy to assume that the Malfoy household was struggling this summer.
Blaise wasn't upset that he didn't have to spend his summer listening to Draco complain about his daddy issues and his first-world problems, however. Some of Draco's moods were difficult to tolerate, and Blaise would rather not.
In a strange twist of fate, the same loathing Blaise had for his mother's need of keeping up appearances, Blaise too kept appearances based on the company he preferred to keep in order to maintain image. Lydia happened to be one of a small few of his friendships that didn't cost him his sanity in order to keep.
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