[MP] I am a bonfire, I am a vampire [Polina]

Venera was in her element. Surrounded by all things spooky, scary, and strange, she had never flt more at home. She had worked hard on getting this haunted house to be the best it could be, but of course she hadn’t done it alone. Her friends, other students, her father and uncle—all had participated to make this a wonderful thing and she was excited to experience it. She was walking closely alongside Polina, her mentee, with a wide grin across her face. She knew Polina didn’t like spooky things—the girl had told her as much—but Venera kind of enjoyed the idea of putting the other girl out of her comfort zone. Also, selfishly, she wanted an excuse to be close to her. Ever since camp, Polina had been a mystery to her. She was pretty in an ethereal sort of way that made Venera feel lightheaded, addicted. She thought she might end up holding the girl’s hand, and the thought filled her with a little too much excitement. 
 
She had never felt like this about a girl before, so excited to be around her. She had always admired women, particularly strong women. She had glimpsed what she thought was Mihaela Lupesco downtown that evening, a girl Venera very much looked up to, but had never really wanted to touch, be touched, or especially hold hands with another girl. Their shoulders brushed as they waited in line and Venera felt a shiver up her spine that wasn’t from the cold.  
 
That said, it was chilly. She was wrapped tightly in a sweater, all but completely obscuring the costume she wore beneath. She was a vampire—of course—with a long black gown with a corset waist. Her face was paler than usual, her eyes lined in red eyeshadow. She had charmed her teeth to look like fangs. She felt sexier this way, filled with sensuality, and couldn’t help taking it out on the girl she was with—teasing her playfully and pulling on her hair. 
 
“This won’t be nearly as bad as you think.” She assured. “I designed a lot of it. It’s not even that scary! Plus, you can hide behind me and hold my hand if it gets too scary.” She promised, hoping that it would. 

@Polina Konstantinova

What in Merlin’s name was she doing here? This was absolutely not her scene. The spookiest thing that she could tolerate was a carved pumpkin, and here she was, being led towards a haunted house. Had anyone else on the planet asked her (even her sister or her cousins), then Polina would have outright refused. But Venera had asked her, and she was drawn to the witch who was now her mentor at Durmstrang in a way she’d never been with anyone else. Apollinariya found that she just couldn’t say no to her.

She had been so frightened of Venera when they had been paired with each other for creative writing class at the Summer camp, she thought that she would be rude and cruel because she was a (former, once again) Koldovstoretz student, but Polina couldn’t have been more wrong. Venera was so mysterious, and Polina found herself wanting to know everything about the much taller witch, she wanted to figure out the mystery behind her housemate.

It was still rather intimidating how gorgeous Venera was, and that evening was no exception. The vampire costume her mentor had on made her even more beautiful, in a weird hypnotic way, and it was difficult to not just stare at the other witch as they waited to enter the haunted house. Polina was not in a costume at all, bundled up in a mishmash of muggle and wizarding attire, her two jumpers mainly hidden beneath her thick, black, woollen robes. Her makeup was mainly natural, though she tried to at least make some effort by wearing a dark red lipstick. It wasn’t enough to keep the willowy witch completely warm though, and her butterflies formed in her stomach as her shiver caused her to brush shoulders with her companion while they waited. She was almost excited to go inside, even if it was going to be scary. She could hide behind Venera if she needed to, the idea of Venera protecting her while she cowered behind her and touched the other witch's back thrilled her more than she’d ever care to admit to herself.

Apollinariya took a sharp but quiet intake of breath, momentarily startled as Venera began speaking to her, and Polina looked up to meet her companion’s eyes as her mentor said it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. “The fact that you designed it is not comforting me, I know how much you like this sort of thing...” Polina teased, with a playful smirk which melted into a shy smile as Venera offered to let her hold her hand when she got scared. The idea of that made the butterflies fly around in her stomach again. “Oh… believe me. I will be.” Polina added more quietly, as they stepped forward towards the front of the queue. She wondered if she could get away with pretending to be more scared than she actually was, just so she had an excuse to hold Venera’s hand.

“Oh! I think we can go in now,” Polina said, glancing up at the taller witch again. “After you…”

Despite all the differences between them, Venera had truly began to see Polina as her best friend at school. She was Venera’s mentee, so of course Venera had to spend time with her—but it was more than that. They roomed together, had meals together, sat together in class and hung out outside of class. She was besties with her. She considered buying her some kind of best friend charm—maybe from Charlotta—maybe when they were done here. She could surprise her. Would Polina like that, she wondered. What if she secretly hated her? No, Venera didn’t think that was the case. The girl seemed shy, but she could always not go with Venera everywhere, if she wanted. She could avoid her if she wanted. Luckily, that hadn’t happened yet.

She smiled at the other witch, feeling a few little butterflies too. She wasn’t used to this feeling at all, wasn’t sure how she felt about feeling it. She was nervous. She knew she liked the other girl and wanted to be friends, but this felt like something more than just really, really, wanting Polina to be her friend. She looked art her, examining her features and thinking to herself what it might be like to touch her face. She wasn’t even thinking anything naughty, though she had kind of had a dream the other day that might have verged into that territory—no, no, for the time being she wasn’t even thinking of being lewd, she just wanted to brush the hair out of her face and look into her pretty eyes. She was so distracted by this thought she barely noticed it was her turn.

“Oh! Yeah, let’s go!” She led the way inside the, now familiar, building. She had worked so hard on this but so did a lot of people. She wouldn’t dare take credit for all of the work. It was a group effort—but her vision. “Wow, this turned out really nice!” She smiled, peeking at Polina. She offered the girl a hand, preemptively, but secretly just because she wanted to hold it.

Apollinariya gave a tentative smile, still wondering what she was doing so far outside her comfort zone, as Venera led the way into this haunted house. She hoped that she could be brave enough to go through the entire thing. It was really important to Polina that she didn’t let her best friend and mentor down, after all, Venera must have put an awful lot of effort into it. Part of her was tempted to shut her eyes as they walked in, but then she wouldn’t be able to see where she was going and she wouldn’t be able to see what Venera had accomplished. Polina needed to learn everything about her mentor, figure out what she liked and what her interests were. She couldn’t just pass up such an opportunity by keeping her eyes closed.

As she looked around, it wasn’t as terribly horrifying as she thought it would be. A relieved smile appeared on her face as she glanced up at the taller witch as Venera said it had turned out nice. It was kind of… pretty actually, in a weird gothic sort of way. “Wow…” Polina breathed, as she looked down at the hand Venera had offered her. A blush appeared on her cheeks before she could stop it. It wasn’t so scary as she thought, but maybe there was going to be a vampire that jumped out at her, or something and Venera already knew. She had better be safe than sorry. Plus, she’d been daydreaming about holding Venera’s hand for ages.

She gently slid her hand into the other witch’s, a shy smile on her lips as she gazed around the room again, finding it difficult to look at her friend at that moment. Her cold hand suddenly felt hot, like Venera’s touch was somehow like a spark. “This must have taken you ages!” Polina exclaimed, hoping her reaction would please her friend. “You really designed most of this?” She asked in a gushing tone, stealing a glance at Venera. “You’re… really talented,” Polina offered sincerely, “I could never do something like this.”