OOC: Daphne’s birthday

Sasha made sure that her flat looked as neat as humanly possible (not that is isn’t always) for the party. Some of the food was catered, but she also contributed a few things herself since she likes to cook now and then. She managed not to murder Barney when he nearly gave the game away, and relaxed significantly once Daphne was there and surprised and happy (that was the point after all).

She did spend a fair amount of the evening watching Abbott, Macmillan, and Zacharias very carefully however. Just in case they tried to ruin Daphne’s party by getting into some weird Hufflepuff turf war (that goes for you, too, Susan).

Also, Sasha’s fiance was there. They probably didn’t spend much time together.

Astoria would have thanked Sasha for throwing such a nice party and understanding about her coming last minute. She would have tried to chat with Sasha quite a bit really — since, unlike her sister, she didn’t feel the need to hang on her fiance all night.

Sasha was happy to have Astoria there and to hang out with her! I think she is a bit wary that Astoria might be planning to stay longer than Daphne expects, however…

Daphne gave Sasha so many hugs! And complimented the food.

Sasha was very happy to receive the hugs and compliments! She is just so pleased that Daphne enjoyed herself.

She is also taking Daph away for a spa weekend, just the two of them, sometime soon.

Daphne is so excited!!

Sabina attended the party (obviously, she lives in the same building, after all) and brought her fiance, Augustus “Gus” Harper along with her. She spent a fair amount of time fussing over Gus and gushing about their wedding plans to willing (and unwilling) audience members.

She was also thrilled to see her bestie Astoria, who has been mysteriously out of touch recently!

Astoria ran to greet Sabina right away, although her smile was a bit more forced than usual when talking to her and Gus together. Throughout the evening she kept trying to pull Sabina away from him for some “just us girls!” talk. She was enthusiastic about making plans for her stay in Helga’s Hill, and kept trying to bring the conversation to that rather than the wedding.

Sabina is definitely interested in have some just us girls time while Astoria is visiting! She just has a tendency to get very wrapped up in Gus because she’s lucky enough to actually be in an arranged match where there is actual affection. She’s sorry! She will be better once she knows the details and realizes that Astoria is actually upset about her engagement ending. I think she figures that Astoria is more like Sasha when it comes to these things.

Eh, she is and she isn’t. They can have a heart to heart sometime soon, but tonight Astoria is all “Oh, I’m FINE. So while I’m here, where is the best place to shop?”

Mirror, Mirror, of course! Sabina will take her there.

Daphne enjoyed seeing Sabina, but she wished she wouldn’t talk so much about the wedding, especially when Astoria was around.

Well, says Sabina, if she knew Astoria was upset, then she would no not to be so happy. She can’t read minds.

Holy crap. Would KNOW not to be so happy. Writing Sabina makes me stupider, I swear.

Susan would’ve been a willing audience member for Sabina’s wedding talk!

Hannah arrived with Ernie and gift in tow, excited to have fun but wary about the possibility of Wayne’s mysterious Zacharias sighting repeating itself. And, of course, he was there! Which thoroughly ruined her mood.

She spent a lot of the party grumpily hanging along the side of the room, eating h’orderves, chatting darkly to Ernie (and Susan, assuming she came), and glaring daggers at Zacharias’ back.

Daphne was not impressed with Hannah hanging out on the side of the room and glaring! Normally she probably would’ve said something, but she was having a good time and didn’t want to ruin the party. But she was definitely more friendly to Hannah at the beginning of the party.

Hannah is sorry if she upset Daphne. But Zacharias upset her. By existing.

Susan felt very uncomfortable, trying to mediate between Hannah and Sasha/Daphne (as hostess/birthday girl) because it’s not really fair to ruin the mood of a party. But she avoided talking to Zach too, partly due to BFF solidarity and partly because she didn’t want to have an awkward reunion/conversation with him either. (At least, not with lots of people looking on.) But she probably glanced his way and bit her lip a lot, and left the party feeling more tense and anxious than she had at the start.

Stella was there with Barney! She managed to keep him from ruining the surprise and had a grand time!

And she brought Daphne a really smashing, exceedingly expensive, designer dress as a gift.

Daphne was speechless when she opened Stella’s present! And then when she found her voice she thanked Stella (and Barney, if it was a joint gift) profusely.

Stella was so pleased that Daphne liked it. And it can definitely be a joint gift unless Alison wants Barney to have brought something else. (Why am I picturing him arriving with a bushel of carrots??)

LOL. Let’s say it was a joint gift and save Daphne from the carrots.

Astoria showed up with just a few minutes to spare, and was determined to have a good time and not be mopey. In fact, she was kind of aggressively cheerful and chatty all night, except for a few moments when she discreetly stepped away to collect herself when watching Sabina fawn over Gus started getting to her.

She had applied a Shrinking Charm to a trunk full of clothes and toiletries so she could fit it into her clutch for the evening. When the charm wore off after a few hours and her clothes spilled onto the floor, she laughed and chose that moment to inform Daphne of the second surprise — she was moving in for a bit! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISSY!

Astoria showing up was maybe even a bigger surprise than the surprise party! Daphne was happy to see her, and glad that she felt up to leaving the house. She paraded Astoria around the room to introduce her to everybody (probably as “my baby sister Astoria”).

She was confused when Astoria’s clothes spilled out of her bag. But once she understood that Astoria was staying with her she got excited, because Daphne loves having visitors.

Astoria was thrilled that her arrival went over so well, and would proudly have let Daphne parade her around. For a while her cheer was actually genuine.

Andrei felt it was too much like a party put on by his parents and not one with close friends. He was amused by the Hufflepuff cold war. He kept mostly to the food table, though he did gravitate to Terence so they could talk Helga’s Heroes. If Gwen was around, there may have been discussion about getting a mascot. Terence would have asked if she could loan them a badger.

Zacharias decided that this was his town, his cousin’s birthday, and he was going to have a good time, everyone else be damned. Er… not everyone, obviously.

Basically he would have studiously avoided his fellow Hufflepuff 98ers while being charming and jovial to everyone else.

Daphne was glad Zach came, because if anybody should have to leave it should be the Hufflepuffs who are being stupid and rude, not Zacharias!

While wrapped up in her own drama Astoria had basically forgotten that her cousin was newly returned to town, and she gave him a big hug and wanted to hear all about Australia and why was he back?

Zacharias would have told Astoria he left Australia because it was an uncultured, provincial backwater. The only good thing was the weather.

Zach heard that Astoria was also new in town and would have asked how long she planned to stay.

Astoria has been a bit worried that Helga’s Hill is a bit of a provincial backwater, so she was cheered to hear that Zach thinks it compares favorably to Australia, at least.

She was vague about the length of her stay, because she herself honestly doesn’t know. For now, she’s calling it open-ended. She informed Zach that she’s even considering getting a job, if she can find one that’s more interesting than Daphne’s — no offence to Uncle Samuel.

Portia came! She brought Sasha a gift (probably a nice bottle of wine) as well as getting Daphne a present. She was very amused by all the Hufflepuff glaring that was going on and might have made a few comments about that, just to stir things up, if the opportunity presented itself. She was very sociable, and spent the evening talking to people and enjoying herself.

Barney is sorry he almost ruined the surprise! He gets over-excited. He bounced about and talked to everyone and completely failed to pick up on the Hufflepuff cold war.