Although last year's....mishaps had allowed Mortimer to delegate the handling of Head Student votes to Selina, this year there was no such...blessing in disguise. This meant he actually had to deal with the fifth and sixth years himself much to his distaste. Ironically, he suddenly very much appreciated those despicable purple clouds and the accompanying fall out.
And the whole thing was nothing more than a popularity contest anyway. Mortimer didn't trust students in the least to choose those best for the job, even if the staff had picked who went on the ballot. Quite frankly, not all of the candidates were his first choices but as it was the entire who staff voted, there they were. He'd been overruled. Though to be fair, the rest of the staff knew them better than he did anyway in the first place. Mortimer kept interactions with students to a minimum, which was honestly best for everyone.
Once the fifth and sixth years had assembled, he instructed them. "Have a seat." and had the house elves pass out the ballots. Mortimer had to figure that after years of this tradition-one he'd always thought was a bad idea personally-students must have understood what was going on. Yet, never one to give anyone too much credit for intelligence especially teenagers, he felt that he probably should explain just a little a bit. "As you have probably figured out," the ballots had to be a dead giveaway, "you are here to vote for next year's Head Boy and Girl. I ask that you take into consideration those who would genuinely best for the job rather than who happens to be popular."
OOC- Voting form can be found here. Voting is in character and if you have more than one character, you vote per character. Votes can remain as anonymous as you would like them to be and you do not have to reply to this message even though you may if you'd like to. This is fuzzytimed to take place prior to the ball. You have until Christmas Day (the day before the new term starts) to get your votes in.
Subthreads:
Both eggs in one basket by Annabelle and Annette Pierce
Keep a steady head. by Wendy Canterbury
11Headmaster BrockertFifth and Sixth Years6Headmaster Brockert15
As they had done this the year before, Annabelle and Annette were not the least bit surprised to find they had been asked to stick around after breakfast to vote with the other fifth and sixth years of the school. As they were sixth years themselves, the possibility that they might be on the ballot was certainly something that they had talked about at length.
Given their lack of success at any of the other badges offered to students, they did not particularly expect to have been chosen to represent the school as next year's Head Girl. Annabelle had expected Prefect and Annette had expected Assistant Captain and neither of those had panned out. This time they were protecting their egos by not expecting anything.
If, however, one of them had made the ballot they would certainly vote for that one. That didn't even require discussion; that was just obvious. Of course they wanted the one who made it that far to win and wouldn't sabotage the possibility by not voting for themselves. That would have been stupid.
The more heated discussion was in regard to the unlikely event that they both made the ballot. As they received their ballots and turned them over they looked up, eyes wide in surprise that this had actually happened. Then they grinned at each other and nodded once, confirming that they would stick with the pre-arranged plan that had been formed when this eventuality had seemed like a fairy-tale impossibility.
That both of them were on the ballot was a fantastic boost to their egos after being overlooked for their other coveted positions. In fact, they accounted for a full half of the Head Girl candidates. That probably didn't mean they had a fifty-fifty chance shot at winning, but it did look pretty good to them.
Better would be if one of them did win, and with that as their goal, they both voted for the same twin, hoping dearly that their classmates would choose the same one if they wanted to vote in an Ann to Head Girl. Annabelle was the seeker - a losing Seeker, unfortunately, but a Seeker - and so they thought that might give her a leg up with the Quidditch crowd, and Annabelle was, now that they were starting to diversify themselves and they had stopped pretending to be each other, a bit more well liked among the pureblood girls who didn't care that they did play Quidditch. Annabelle was much better at talking about fashion and dances and boys and all those things proper girls were supposed to like but Annette found horrendously dull.
They just hoped people didn't hold it against her too much that she had lost the snitch to the Aladren second year (twice). They were pretty sure people had mostly sorted out that the 'Annabelle' who had defied tradition early in their Quidditch career was actually both of them (and it had actually been Annette who played in the games) and that particular infamy had been laid to rest with the Pierces' defection from WAIL and their new alliance with the Heritage Society.
1Annabelle and Annette PierceBoth eggs in one basket246Annabelle and Annette Pierce05
The vote for Head Girl and Boy was inevitable, and as the end of the year drew nearer, she became a little more thoughtful about it. When she had first been given the role as Prefect, she had disliked it. The magical mishap that had taken place during her first year had been very challenging, but a good challenging. After another year in the role, Wendy actually enjoyed the responsibility. It would be nothing compared to Head Girl, but she wasn't in any clubs or sports to distract her from the work.
When she sat down and received the ballot, she stared hard at it. Next year it was going to be someone from her class being awarded Head Girl, and she was nervous first of all that her name wasn't going to be on the ballot. It was, along with three other pureblood girls. That in itself was a little disconcerting.
Though she hadn't really come into contact with it, she knew of the prejudice some purebloods at this school had. Those three would definitely get the school's votes. Granted, Wendy didn't know the other three girls as well as she knew herself, but she thought at this age she could very well handle the responsibility of Head Girl. She wasn't a flighty child anymore. But against three other purebloods, she didn't want to get her hopes up too high as she checked the box next to her own name.
Head Boy was a little easier. There were only two candidates and Wendy felt herself warm when her eyes fell on one of them. It was a weird feeling, but she ignored it as she checked the box next to his name. Though one was already a Prefect, Head Boy was a great opportunity to give another a chance to join the student council. And if it just so happened that the two people she had voted for became Head Girl and Boy, she wouldn't mind that too much. In fact, she might not mind that at all.
19Wendy CanterburyKeep a steady head.245Wendy Canterbury05