Ion Garnent opened the door to the compartment excitedly, peering around and finding himself only a little disappointed it was empty. Nevertheless he continued in, dragging his heavy trunk and getting it settled with a sigh, before flopping down on the seat closest to the window, staring excitedly out as he waited for the train to start moving.

Filan Naril comes shuffling through the halls, dragging his own truck behind him. He’s passing the doors to the compartments slowly, peering inside each and every one before he continues on his trek to find a seat. Even though the youth seems calm at the moment, there’s an air of excitement hanging about him. He pauses at the door to the second compartment, peering curiously at the person inside, “Hullo.”

Having managed to shrug his brother off of his trail, Chester makes his way down the train corridor, peeking into the second one. “Hi,” he greets dully to Filan before making his way unceremoniously inside and sitting down as close to the window as he can get. “Are you new, too?” he asks quietly, seeming a bit subdued.

Angus Fallon grabs his trunk and hefts it to an overhead bin, then does the same for Venora and Edern. Then he turns and grins at the other two, “Dibs on a window seat,” then tears off down the isle till he finds an empty row and crowds near the window, Venora follows, but takes the time to smile at the other students as she does and squeezes in beside her brother, “Come on Edern. We’ll make room for you too!”

Edern Fallon nods and follows his sister to their seat.

Ion glanced at each of the new occupants and grinned, happy to see that the once empty compartment was quickly filling up. “Hey ‘Lan, don’t dally in the doorway, come sit with us.” He called to the only boy he knew, before turning to the others and answering the shy boy’s question. “Yeah, this is my first year here. The rest of you are new too? I’m Ion Garnent, by the way, nice to meet you all.”

Filan Naril blinks at the sound of his name, before the mild confusement fades and changes into an excited look. “Heya Ion! Didn’t think I’d bump into you here.” And in he strolls, putting up much a fight to get his trunk settled before helping himself to a seat. “I’m so excited, aren’t you? In a few hours we’ll be at hogwarts.” And as more people come in, he gives an excited wiggle of his fingers, “First time too?”

Chester says, “I’m Chester Blake,” said boy speaks up a bit louder now, glancing at the others pouring into the compartment. “Do you know what house you want to be?” Chester asks casually, looking about. “By the way, we shouldn’t let my brother in. I don’t want him in here with us.” The boy scoots back into his seat and slouches a bit as he leans on the window a bit.”

“I’m Chester Blake,” said boy speaks up a bit louder now, glancing at the others pouring into the compartment. “Do you know what house you want to be?” Chester asks casually, looking about. “By the way, we shouldn’t let my brother in. I don’t want him in here with us.” The boy scoots back into his seat and slouches a bit as he leans on the window a bit.

If anyone else had crowded three to a seat, Angus would have unceremoniously shoved them off. But Venora and Edern were always the exceptions. Besides, he couldn’t imagine a first day with Ven on one side, and Ed on the other. “Hey, look! See the smoke from the engine Vennie?” Venora grins as she follows her brother’s finger, “If only we hadn’t got caught climbing up there. Hey!” She stands and calls across the car, narrowing her eyes at Filan. “Haven’t I met you? Outside the sweet shop? I’m Venora Fallon. These are my brothers, Angus and Edern.”

The rather small lad looks up as he’s spoken to, offering a rather enthusiastic nod to Venora’s question, “I think I saw you in the ice cream shop, if I remember right…right? There was that other lad, too…I can’t remember who he was…” He drifts off at a thought, reaching up to scratch at the side of his head, “Oh, anyway, I’m Filan Naril, nice to meet you lot.”

“I know, I can’t wait! But the train ride should be fun; I’m so used to going by floo that I never get to travel like this.” Ion responded to Filan, fingers unconsciously playing with the key around his neck in excitement. “As for which House I want to be in.. My mum’s a Slytherin and my dad’s a Hufflepuff, so either of those would be my choice.” He spares a moment to smile at the new occupants.

“My parents were both Slytherins,” Chester mentions and shrugs. “I don’t know if I’ll be in Slytherin. I guess if the hat thinks I should be. I hear the other houses are nice, too.” Mild Chester seems to be almost apathetic about which house he will be sorted to. “Are you guys related or something?” he asks the triplets bluntly.

Venora Fallon nods, “Right. I had my first ice-cream. We tried one of each, didn’t we?” She grins smugly at her brothers, proud to have tasted this British ice-cream treat before they did. “I don’t know what House I want. I wanted Slytherin, like Auntie Kee. But I guess I don’t care what I get. Father was Ravenclaw, so was our sister. I don’t know what mother was. Edern? Do you remember?”

Edern Fallon nods ‘no’.

Filan Naril perks up from his seat where he squirms a bit at the excitement, “Um…my Da was in Gryffindor, my brother was in Ravenclaw…and my other brother’s on his last year–he’s a Gryffindor, and sis’s a hufflepuff.” He offers a sheepish look, squirming a bit more in his seat. “I wonder how long the ride is.”

“My parents told me that all the Houses are nice, so no matter what you won’t end up somewhere unhappy.” Ion responds encouragingly to Chester; the poor kid didn’t seem like he had much energy in him. “I’m Ion Garnent, by the way.” He introduces himself to the triplets. “You guys know ‘Lan, too? I guess the candy store is a regular hangout.” He teases lightly.

Angus pipes up, turning from the window, “That’s what our sister says. But our neighbor says only ruffians, deadbeats, and rotters go to Slytherin.” He grins at the others, “She’s sure I’ll end up there, Vennie and Eddie too.” Angus seems well pleased with Mrs. Elderberry’s prediction for the ‘Fallon miscreants’. She sighs, “You know she’s not right, Angus. Aunt Kee and Aunt Lizbeth and Aunt Julie were all Slytherins. And Emma was their best friend, even if she was Ravenclaw. I don’t care which House I get, really.”

Filan Naril chews on his bottom lip as he listens to the others talk, perking up to offer his own bit of insight. “My brother Will says that the houses are all okay, he’s got friends in every single on of ‘em, but you’re always gonna bump into someone you don’t like. So I think it’s pointless in worrying about which house you get. I think as long as there’s a nice warm bed waiting for me, I’ll be happy no matter what.”

Venora Fallon nods at Filan, “That’s what our Father says, too. He said so, right in front of our neighbor. Said she was proof that Ravenclaw gets it’s share of rotters, too. Didn’t he Edern?”

Edern Fallon nods again, this time a ‘yes’.

Ion Garnent frowns at Agnus, confused and a little taken aback by his words. “Your neighbor said that? It’s not very nice; my mum’s really smart and kind, so obviously there can’t be anything wrong with that House.” He counters, backing up Venora’s opinion. “I wouldn’t think Hogwarts would accept bad people, anyways.”

Venora Fallon grins at Ion, “Don’t worry. Angus doesn’t really believe Mrs. Elderberry. He knows lots of Slytherins that are delicious. Our Dad used to teach Slytherins. And Gryffindors. He loved them both.” She winks, “Mrs. E is just cross because we accidentally set her lawn on fire.”

Filan Naril pushes himself to his feet and stretches, “Will you watch my stuff? I’m gonna walk a bit before we get going, I wanna stretch a bit.” He offers a wave before he sneaks out of the compartment.

“Don’t worry about it, I got you covered, ‘Lan.” Ion waves as the other boy leaves before returning to his conversation, though he seems a little weary of Venora. What sort of girl describes other people as ‘delicious’? “How’d you set her lawn on fire? I guess I could understand why she’d be upset, but if it was an accident than there’s no reason for her to be a troll about it.”

Venora Fallon leans back against the seat, half standing, half kneeling to be able to see above the heads of other students. “Well. We threw a dung-bomb over there.” Angus interrupts with a grin, “So that part wasn’t an accident. But she was always threatening to hurt Spot and Rover, wasn’t she Ed?” Venora picks up again, “We didn’t think the dung-bomb would start a fire.” Her eyes twinkle a bit as she glances, slyly, at the quiet triplet, “Of course, we let Edern tinker with it a bit, first.”

Venora Fallon giggles as they roll into Hogsmead station. “Look everyone!” She points out the window at an old witch in mustard colored robes hurrying away from the tracks, “There’s our neighbor.”

Ion Garnent dashes to the window, looking out with wide blue eyes. “Wow, I can’t believe we’re here already! Come on, let’s hurry on out.” He quickly starts pulling his luggage out, before pausing for a moment as a problem occurs to him. “Hey guys, ‘Lan isn’t back yet. Think you guys can help me carry his stuff, too?” He asks sheepishly.

“I think we’re just supposed to leave it here,” Chester comments, standing up and looking out the compartment. “Hey, can you help me?” he calls to a prefect who is strutting down the corridor. “How are we supposed to get all of our stuff to the school?” The prefeect sighs. “Just leave it there. It will be brought to the school for you.” Chester nods and turns back in with a shrug, nearly falling over as the train stops with a lurch.

Venora Fallon stands, stretching, “I still think it’s funny, going all the way to London just to take a train back home.” Angus climbs over her, reaching for their trunks, “Yeah, but would you have missed the ride, and just settled for meeting everyone at the station, Ven?” Venora grasps her trunk, shifts a small wicker box deep into her robes, only to drop her trunk with a thud as the prefect tells them to leave everything. “Nice,” she comments, “I hadn’t wanted to lug all that all the way to the Castle.”

Nate Hunter bites his lip as Briony hits her head. Laughing would be bad. He clears his throat instead and follows the girl out of the compartment, continuing to bite his bottom lip.

Venora Fallon steps out onto the platform she knows as well as she knows her own hand. But somehow it all seems different, now that she’s a Hogwarts student, and not just a child of Hogsmeade.

The students begin to pour out of the train, and Bonnie stands at the end of the platform, waving her arms. “First years, gather around me. Other years, straight to the carriages please! In an orderly fashion, if you please!” she yells to a group of boisterous Slytherins passing by. “Alright, first years, join here! We’ll leave for the boats once you have all arrived!” She watches as the students excitedly mill around, a smile fixed on her face.

Disembarking, dragging her copious amounts of baggage behind, Saphia sticks with Briony, continuing to ask worried questions about her head and informing her that she should really see the nurse about it. But she can’t do it too much, given that lugging so much luggage is leaving her short of breath. “It’ll all be … good… once we reach the carriages…”

Ion Garnent stretches as he exits the train, glancing around at the nice scenery. “Wow, it’s beautiful here..” He comments, before Bonnie’s announcement cuts through the air. Excited, he quickly heads over to stand around her, looking to the other first years and trying not to grin too hard.

“Mum will just tell me I’ve bumped my head and that I shouldn’t be worried about it,” Briony tells the Ravenclaw with a roll of her eyes. It seems apparent that Briony is now used to bumping her head on things, though she clearly is not pleased about this fact. She hangs behind for a moment, waiting to see if she can’t find Gabe before boarding a carriage, but as she runs into Kalynn instead, she grins and the two girls get into a carriage.

Kara Raine exits the train, talking quite excitedly with a fellow Ravenclaw. “Didn’t expect it really, knew that they needed a new captain with Noemie graduating and all.” Attention is diverted at the announcement, before with a grin, the fourth year turns toward the carriages.

Orderly is not a fashion to which the Fallon triplets are accustomed. Oh, Edern may be able to manage it, but Venora and Angus are far to excited to do anything but stumble over one another as they race to stand before Bonnie. Halfway there, after nudging by several older students they recalled that particular aspect of the teacher’s orders and did try to slow down. They just didn’t manage quite well and skidded to a stop before the woman, Venora beaming up at her, before turning to Ion. “Tis beautiful here. Our house is just over that rise there. Come, stand by us Ion.”

Olivia is smiling cheerfully as she steps off of the train, waiting for Evan before she makes her way out to the carriages. “Should we wait for Constance?” she asks quietly, her voice getting lost as she makes her way toward the carriages quickly.

Andy Carver hops off the Hogwarts Express, his coat dangling from his arm and his trunk in hand. He takes a deep breath, excited for a new school year and silently follows the crowd towards one of the carriages.

Glad to be done the train ride, Nate hops off the train, glances at the first years and then scuttles towards the carriages, trunk in tow.

Evan Geroff follows Olivia off the train, stepping quickly out of the way of the rest of the departing passengers. He stays quiet for the familiar announcement, then; “It looks like she’s finding some of her friends. Let’s get a carriage.”

As the older students all filter away into the carriages toward the school, Bonnie grins at the first years. “Follow me, and be lively. If you get lost, there’s no telling when we’ll find you again, and then how will you explain to your parents why you missed your own sorting?” Bonnie lets out a little grin and turns. “Quickly, quickly!” she calls, heading down the path toward the shore of the lake.

The fleet pushes off from shore in near unison. As the boats progress silently through the water, they leave no wake behind. Drifting along, the boats travel in an unhurried fashion, moving over the darkened waters in a loose group, but always remaining together. The chilly night’s breeze is more apparent here upon the lake.

As the fleet continues forward, the southern shore recedes into the distance, and is lost in loose tendrils of smoky fog. The northern shore is not yet in view, concealed as it is by a thicker blanket of pale haze. The air is cooler over the lake, and as the boats drift further onto the water, there a more pronounced breeze that nips through robe and sweater alike.

“Please take care not to fall out! There’ll be no helping you if the squid gets you!” Bonnie warns the group ominously, then continuing to chatter on about all the wonderful things about Ravenclaw house.

The fleet has begun to move through the steadily increasing fog now, reducing visibility to a scant metre or two. Dim lights from the lanterns on the other boats of the fleet can be seen, flickering softly in the wind. The breeze is gentle, but consistent and quite cold out here upon the nearly still nighttime waters, where is there is no shelter and no warming fire. The only company is the steady rocking of the boats and the dim lights of boat lanterns.

The fleet has finally begun to leave the haze behind, although the mist tries vainly to cling to the boats and it still laps at those lingering in the rear. The Forbidden Forest encroaches upon the eastern shoreline, bordered by grey mist and shadow. The northern shore has come into view with the castle of Hogwarts silhouetted against the hills beyond; the immense towers rise up in stern defiance to the centuries they have weathered. Few windows break the even stone facade of the castle walls, preserving the mysteries within from prying eyes. However, those few windows are merrily lit from within those hallowed halls, revealing the welcoming warmth that can be found within, a homecoming to those who have made a long journey. Ivy and similar plants sprawl across the walls of the castle, their unruly density hinting at the senescence of the walls themselves. The breeze is still cold, nipping at the boats and rustling over the water.

“The squid?” Ion whispers nervously.

“Told you there was a squid.” Rowan whispers to nobody in particular, apparently regardless of whether he actually told them any such thing. “What do you think it eats, in this kind of lake, huh?”

“There’s a squid in the lake?” Chester replies, his eyes growing wide. He instinctively scoots in from the center.

The fleet has begun to pick up speed, accelerating rapidly towards the northern shore. Clear of fog, all that remains of the distant haze is what marks the barriers to the southern and eastern shores, the mist lapping on top of the water but the fleet has now broken free of its grasp. Remarkably, the boats still leave no wake to mark their passage across the water. The speed causes the brisk air to hurtle past, reducing the apparent temperature further and setting the lantern lights to flickering even more, though none of them have gone out.

The squid! She’d forgotten about the squid! Venora leans over a side of the boat, peering into the murky depths of the lake. “Come on little squiddy!” Venora whispers, “Let’s have a look.” Angus just sighs and grabs hold of Venora‘s cloak to keep her well in the boat, used to his sister’s reactions by now.

Rising suddenly as through from beneath the water, the looming bulk of Hogwarts Castle blots out the evening sky and casts a dense shadow over the shoreline, broken only by the steady glow of the lights from within a large section of the building. The boats have begun to decelerate now, but are still moving rapidly as they skim towards the darkness ahead. As it grows steadily darker, the night air takes on a crisper and ever more frigid bite.

The fleet has now passed into the shadow cast by the Castle and descended into absolute darkness, evading the dancing lights that reflected from the windows above. The lantern lights, which have remained so faithful during the journey, have abruptly faded away. Only the steady flow of cold night air moving past indicates that the boats are still moving; there is no other sensation of motion.

“I have to say, if anyone could take on the squid, it’s you Venora.” Ion laughs, relaxing a little more.

The fleet has halted at the lakeshore just below the castle, the transition from movement to rest having occurred smoothly, but without warning. Dim reflected light illuminates a stone stairway, worn smooth with age and use, with steps rising for two metres before disappearing over the cliff top. You can now DISEMBARK.

“I’m sure it’s a lovely thing. I’ve never heard of a Hogwarts student being eaten by it. Emmaline says they used to play with it’s tentacles. Or something.” She frowns, glancing at Edern, “Do you remember? Anyway…we’re here!”

For a moment, Rowan almost looks insulted. “I could, too!” He protests, almost hurt, adjusting his glasses and peering one last time into the murky depths before springing out of the boat, still glaring at Ion. A pause, and he grabs out for his brother. “Hey, Chesty, we’re almost real students now.”

“Look lively, look lively!” Bonnie calls to the students, waiting for a moment before they’ve all disembarked from the boats. None fell in this time. “Nice to see you’ve all survived!” she calls cheerfully, waving an arm as she begins up the hill toward the school.

“Don’t call me that,” Chester replies out of habit and sighs a bit. “I hope you’re not in my house Rowan. I’m tired of being asked if we’re twins.”

Chesty? Angus looks at the other boy, eyebrows raised. He hadn’t thought Chester would like that nickname. “Is your brother Rowie, then?” Venora glances up at the boys and grins.

“You can go ‘head and call him that,” Chester replies, grinning a bit. “But my name isn’t Chesty. It’s Chester.” The boy nods solemnly.

“I don’t doubt that you could.” Ion placates Rowan, surprised at the outburst before following closer to the triplets. “I wish we could have spent more time on the boats.. it was so cool, how they gliding across the water like that!” He chatters at them wistfully, too caught up in that trip to appreciate the castle.

An incredibly tall tan-skinned woman in jade robes stands before the fire, hands somewhat unconciously smoothing out the front of her robes. At the sound of the first years entering, she turns, already rigid posture improving with the squaring of her shoulders. The light of fire reflects off of her glasses, making her expression somewhat hard to read, but her mouth does turn upward ever so minutely at the corners. “Welcome to Hogwarts, where you will begin your magical education.” Her head tilts just a bit, changing the angle so that her eyes are visable, and considerably softening her countenance. “Shortly we will enter the Great Hall and begin the Sorting Ceremony. I expect you all to be on your very best behavior. This is your chance to make a good first impression.”

“Rowie, is it?” Venora grins at Rowan, “I’m sure you could take on the squid almost as well as me.” Angus snickers, but takes a step away. If his sister is going to start something just before they’re sorted, well she was on her own. Probably. Mostly. Maybe. Anyway, Angus grins as the teacher walks up, Venora forgotten for a moment. “Aunt Kee! I didn’t know you would be the one to take us inside! Brilliant!”

Rowan shrugs his shoulders vaguely, still not quite paying attention to everything – only the relevant portions, where by ‘relevant’, we mean… uh… hey, look, is that an ant on the floor? Would he get in trouble if he did a cartwheel? Finally, something wakes him up, and he looks up at Keelan admiringly, only further offering a hushed, “You shouldn’t have come this year, Chesty. Stealin’ my turn at school.” He doesn’t seem terribly annoyed, though perhaps a little miffed that his mother took so little time getting pregnant. Registering Keelan’s words finally, though, he straightens himself up a bit, adjusts his glasses, and flattens his hair.

“Is this the brother you were talking about, Chester?” Ion asks, looking between the two of them with an air of uncertaintly. They sure didn’t act very brotherly. He doesn’t bother trying to sort out his appearence like some of the others, unconcerned with how he looks. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ion Garnent.”

“Yeah,” Chester replies carefully, glancing over to Rowan. “We’re not twins.” He states this rather forcefully as he looks to Ion. Chester is about to speak more, but the weight of the present situation seems to impress itself on him, and he gulps a bit, looking at the ominous doors with pinkened cheeks.

For a moment, Rowan looks a touch miffed. After a moment, he grabs at Chester’s arm again, whispering, “How come you got all the friends? I don’t want to have to fight you for them.” This might seem perfectly logical to him, even if it seems like something of a leap to everyone else. After a moment, he adds, “I’m older. It’s my birthday soon.” Another pause. “You still owe me a present, Chesty, even if we’re at school now.”

Venora Fallon shakes her head. “Too bad. It’s great being multiple, isn’t it?” She glances for confirmation to Edern and Angus. Angus nods quickly, “Course it is. Pity, really, Chester. You’d like each other more if you were twins.”

Keelan Walsh continues. “I am Professor Keelan Walsh, and I will be teaching you the fine subject of Herbology, as well as acting as Head of House for those of you who are sorted into the prestigious house of Slytherin.” Her hands clasp, and then unclasp, and her expression threatens to dissolve into something of an amused smirk at Angus, but she manages not to look too, well… human about it. “I couldn’t miss the opportunity to introduce such a promising class of first years to the school.” At this the woman’s gaze meets not only the Fallon triplets but that of Batrius Lennox. Goodness, Keelan was getting old. “In any event, once we are in the Hall I’ll call you by name to be Sorted, at which point I expect you’ll all be very respectful of your fellow students and let them be Sorted without trying to call attention to yourselves.” She gestures then. “If you’ll follow me?”

“You never got me one!” Chester asserts loudly, then looking in Keelan’s direction uncertainly. “I’m not giving you any presents. As Keelan beckons, Chester walks forward with her, his eyes widening a bit, perhaps in fear, or likely in anticipation.

“Hey, no need to get upset. Everyone can be friends with each other, you know.” Ion looks at Chester, a concerned expression on his face, before following after the professor.

Venora Fallon holds tightly to her brothers’ hands as they slip into the hall, following their “Aunt” Keelan. For a moment, she’s as wide-eyed and awe-struck as any Firstie. A slow smile spreads across her face and she lets Angus and Edern’s hands fall. This was it. She was finally here. She finally understood all the stories Emmaline had told her about Hogwarts. Another glance at Keelan has the girl hoping, once again, to be sorted Slytherin. But whichever. It was school. It was going to be brilliant….

Keelan Walsh strides into the Great Hall looking very much like she does every year, just standing and moving rather than sitting and occasionally giving The Eye to the Ravenclaws. Oh, and there is a group of short (mostly) and Unsorted students following along behind her. The Professor comes to rest near a stool on which rests an incredibly old and patched hat, looking very much as though someone had simply forgotten to take it with them when they left. She turns to face the first years, clasping her hands in front of her and standing rather quietly. In fact, for a moment it seems as if she’s simply forgotten what to do next, if not for the fact that she looks exactly like she knows what she’s doing.

Ion Garnent lets his gaze roam around the room, suddenly a little intimidated by all the older students and professors, edging in a little close to the other unsorted students. He tries to keep his posture straight and not bounce on his heels like a child, as his mother taught him, but it’s so hard when he’s this close to being sorted and starting his first year at Hogwarts.

For a moment, Rowan looks – intimidated? Concerned? Frightened, perhaps? His eyes fix first on each of the tables in turn, taking in the number of students (and, for that matter, Professors) at each of them. He doesn’t speak this time, not even to jestingly tease his brother again. After a moment, however, in defiance of his pretence of good manners, he does twirl around a little, and seems tempted to try some sort of gymnastic tumble in front of the hall.

For the first time, Chester almost seems to seek out the comfort of being near his brother, stepping just slightly closer as he eyes the hat leerily. The boy does not say anything or even show any affection to Rowan, but he does look very nervous as he stands with the rest of the first years.

Keelan Walsh listens to this year’s song, eyes on the new first years, and pulls a roll of parchment out of presumably a pocket. When the Sorting Hat has finished, she smiles, briefly. Without particular flair, the woman reads off the first name, and a little redheaded girl steps up nervously to become the first “Slytherin!” of the night. The next goes to “Hufflepuff!”.

Next comes the younger “Blake, Chester!” as Keelan continues down the line.

Chester doesn’t expect to be before his older brother, and he looks a bit startled as he steps forward, looking around, sitting down on the seat and pulling the hat low on his head, his curls sticking out from under it, getting in his eyes.

Chester is sorted to Hufflepuff and he seems to breathe a sigh of relief, stepping down and putting the hat up where it belongs before he practically runs over to Hufflepuff table, sitting down as quickly as he can.

Keelan Walsh smiles politely at the newly Sorted student and calls out for his elder brother, “Blake, Rowan!”

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood tries not to look too much like he might find the girls’ conversation ridiculous and that it might make him sick all over, and instead rather sullenly watches the first years. Although, to be honest, Charlie does not have the most stoic face, and an eyeroll or two escape him. Girls. At the appropriate time, Charlie applauds the new arrivals, but he doesn’t really appear to be overly excited, even as he bothers with a “Welcome to Hufflepuff.” Really. Welcome. Honest.

Rowan stares, wide-eyed at the hat. “It spoke.” He whispers, to whoever happens to be closest to him. “I mean, it sang. It sang, and it spoke. Hats aren’t supposed to do that.” A pause. “Oh, yeah, it’s magic, huh?” Good one, Rowan. As his name is called, he seems stunned, though he runs – or at least, walks very quickly and exhuberantly – to the hat, pulling it down onto his head, with more than a little bit of trepidation.

(Hufflepuff) “It might be better with more of an age difference,” Alice comments, head turning for a moment to look as another Hufflepuff is called. But her attention quickly goes back. “When is the wedding? Will you be in it?” That one, at least, must be directed to Constance; anyway, she has lowered her voice now.

(Hufflepuff) Chester looks about, a little uncertainly as he gets acquainted with the faces of his new housemates. “Hullo,” he greets them with a bit of a smile, looking up with interest to see where his brother is sorted.

(Hufflepuff) “Of COURSE I’m going to be in it!” Constance tells her friend with a grin. “I’m related, after all, how could she not put me in it?” Constance seems to be joking with this statement as she looks happy and cheerful, greeting the newcomer. “Your sister was away all summer, wasn’t she, Alice? Working with your Aunt?”

Keelan Walsh calls up three more children as the Hat calls out “Ravenclaw!” twice and then another “Slytherin!” is Sorted. Reading over the next name, a smile that the first years shouldn’t get too used to spreads across Keelan‘s face. “Fallon, Angus!” is thusly summoned, and the child goes to “Hufflepuff!”

“Well… I think you’re broken!” Rowan hisses almost spitefully to the hat, though he looks around uncertainly for what to do next. Is he supposed to remove the hat? Right, right. With that, he hurries off to the Gryffindor table.

Still looking for all intents and purposes warm and inviting, Keelan Walsh proceeds to “Fallon, Edern!”

Edern Fallon walks up to the Sorting Hat, a bit apprehensive, eyeing it wearily – he had heard a lot about it, but to actually meet it and place a thinking cap on his head? He hadn’t even had the chance to inspect it. Still, he takes a deep breath and sits down, pulling the hat down onto his head – though not too far down.

Smiling broadly and with great pride, Edern joins the long table on the side where a cheering House greets him. He is more than pleased to be placed with his Aunt Kee’s House, even if it means he isn’t with his brother.

(Hufflepuff) Alice Wexler nods, glances briefly at another new Hufflepuff, then nods again to Constance. “Yeah, she was. I didn’t see her much.” This thought pleases her briefly; Alice got more attention! “She’s back here now, of course.”

Keelan Walsh straightens a bit and nods at the boy approvingly before calling up “Fallon, Venora!”

Venora Fallon‘s smile morphs into a wide grin as she steps out from the protection of the gaggle of first years, shoulders straight and head high. Glancing to her brothers for a moment, she climbs the stairs and gives a little wave to Keelan Walsh. She sits neatly on the chair and dons the hat, not minding as it falls over her eyes. She sits, unmoving, but for her fingers crossing in her lap.

(Hufflepuff) “Of course. I see her over at Gryffindor table. She got really tall! How odd.” Constance shakes her head and then brushes some hair out of her face. “Maybe mum will let you stay at our house next summer some if she’s at home. There aren’t less people, but it would be so much fun, don’t you think?” The girl beams at the idea, waving down the table at Chester cheerfully.

Ravenclaw! Emmaline would be pleased. Oh, Venora wished her brothers would have been sorted to the same House! It would be ever so much more fun with Edern and Angus at her side. Still…Ravenclaw was very good. And they were going to have fun, no matter what. They’d promised Father. She fumbles the hat off her head, placing it haphazardly back on the stool then turns to face her new housemates with a wide, crooked grin.

If Keelan‘s face falters at the Hat’s pronouncement, it is merely momentary, though perceptive students may note a bit of a twitch going in her left eyebrow even as she smiles at Venora. More parchment is unrolled, and “Garnent, Ion!” is asked to come forth.

Ions fingers reach up to unconsciously play with the key around his neck as his name is called, and boldly he steps up to the hat. His eyes flicker towards the already sorted first years with an overly serious expression on his face, before taking a seat on the stool and placing the hat on his head, waiting anxiously.

(Hufflepuff) “That would be so much fun!” Alice agrees. “You have even more people. Would there be room?” She pauses, but then another thought hits her, and she asks again, “Do you think our parents would let us? We are already living right near each other.”

Ion Garnent blinks in surprise, obviously sorted into a house he wasnt expecting, but still pleased over the choice. In his excitement to get to his table he nearly forgets to take the Hat off, and has to backtrack a few steps in order to return it. Any sense of etiquette is lost as he takes his seat at the table of his new House.

(Hufflepuff) “Of course there would be room! You could share my bed!” Constance seems to see no problem with this arrangement, even if there might be wedding-type festivities making the house more crowded. “Why would our parents have a problem with it? It’s different when you stay at someone else’s house, and wouldn’t your dad be glad at not having to keep track of you as well as all your siblings?” Constance shrugs at this and grins about. “Hey, Charlie, are we going to do better at Quidditch this year? I think we should win.”

Three more nervous eleven year olds take their turn. One spends upwards of five minutes to become a “Slytherin!”, and then in quick succession a pair of coustins is split between “Gryffindor!” and “Hufflepuff!” With no small amount of pride in her voice, Keelan calls “Lennox, Batrius!” A young boy steps up, gives a wide grin to the Professor, and then sits with the Hat. He fidgets after a moment, frowns briefly, but then something of a wicked smile surfaces as the Hat announces, “Ravenclaw!”. Quickly, Batrius Lennox actually tips the hat at Keelan, who looks very much like she just choked on a frog, sets it on the stool, and scampers off to join his new housemates.

With a strained voice, then, Keelan calls up an entire passel of students, three of which join “Slytherin!”, two more go to “Gryffindor!”, and one each for “Hufflepuff!” and “Ravenclaw!” As the amount of scroll Keelan has shrinks and the amount dangling toward the floor lengthens, she announces, “Taber, Nell!”

Nell Taber fairly skips up to the hat, all traces of nervousness hidden as she carefully pats her hair, then waves to the watching crowd before putting it on.

(Hufflepuff) Alice Wexler laughs quietly. “I suppose you’re right. If your parents won’t mind, I’ll ask.. maybe not quite yet, though.” It’s still a bit early in the school year to worry about summer again. As Constance asks about quidditch, Alice‘s attention wanders back to the sorting that seems to be occuring, finding the new first years at least a little more interesting.

Nell looks a bit startled, but she carefully places the hat down, then takes a small curtsy for the watching crowd, before running off to her new table.

Keelan Walsh calls two more students, both of whom end up in “Slytherin!”

(Hufflepuff) Angharad says, “Welcome to Hufflepuff, Nell!”

Keelan Walsh claps, briefly, as the last child is Sorted, but this seems to serve the purpose of re-rolling the scroll rather than as applause. This done, she hoists the stool, hat still perched on it, and sets it off to the side before finally taking her seat with the other faculty members.

(Hufflepuff) “I’m pleased to meet you,” Nell says politely, looking around the table.”Er, Hufflepuffs are really secretly special, aren’t they?”

As the Sorting itself concludes, Astra rises from her seat at the faculty table and stands to face the vast hall and its many occupants. There’s a beat between her standing up and her actual address of the students, but when she does speak it is clear and calm, using the natural acoustics of the room to make herself heard rather than magical spells. Turning to nod at Keelan, she smiles lightly to the other woman before repeating the gesture to Bonnie. “Thank you Professor Walsh for your help with the Sorting and my gratitude to Professor Kensington for your assistance with bringing the first years safely to the school, it’s always an exciting task.” Addressing the school again, the Headmistress draws herself up and continues. “I’m very glad to see you all back and hope that you’ve had a wonderful summer. For our new students, welcome to your new home. I’m sure that your fellow House mates will help you get settled in quickly and comfortably.” Pausing to look at the
many faces, some new and many familiar, she grins sharply and gives a moment before she launches on.

(Hufflepuff) “Of course they are,” Olivia mentions with a bit of dismay at the new girl, shaking her head a bit, quickly quieting down as she looks up toward the headmistress.

(Hufflepuff) “Oh, good!” Nell says, with a relieved smile. “I’m very special. My parents both say so. My brother said the Slytherins were the best, but I’m better then him, so if I’m here this must be better.”

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood is sarcastic because he’s sulky(normally he’s got at least some pride), “Oh, yes, really special. We’ve got a lot of paintings of badgers and everything.” What an excellent Prefect he makes. “Now hush up and listen to Professor Rathe.” He leans back on the bench, crossing his arms and turning his face (which may as well be in a full on pout, honestly), toward the faculty table.

(Hufflepuff) Constance‘s eyebrows raise as she looks toward Alice after Nell’s statement, obviously a little puzzled at this girl. She chooses not to say anything at this moment, however, valuing the good opinion of the prefect who sits so near.

The mood of her tone sobers but she continues the speech with the same efficient crisp pace. “For our returning students who remember Headmistress Prichard, I bring sorry news. It was all of our hopes that she would be returning to us this year, but she will not be returning in the foreseeable future. Rest assured the moment I hear any word, I will share it with the entire school.” Clearing her throat, Astra reaches for a goblet and takes a sip from the liquid before continuing. “There have been only a few minor changes to our staff this year.” “We welcome back Professors Helit, Addison, Fallon, and Walsh as our Heads of Houses. It is our sincere hope that they will continue to fill these roles for many years.” “Professor Calwern will not be returning as Charms Professor and so Professor Austin will continue as our Charms Professor. Professor Rathe stepped down from Potions and has taken over teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, good luck to him.” “Finally, please welcome Professor Orwell Gadds as our newest Potions instructor.” Finishing up with that, she takes no breather yet but picks up with a more pleasant manner and almost playful manner. “I’m sure the seventh years are excited to know who will become the Head Boy and Head Girl for this year.” Taking delight in this news, Astra purposely pauses to sip from the goblet in her hand and glance over the various tables. “Congratulations are in order to Slytherin Prefect, Evan Geroff who is Head Boy this year and no less congratulations are in order to Hufflepuff’s very own Olivia Baxtor.” Only now does the woman allow herself a brief respite to grin widely and watch any reactions that might take place.

(Hufflepuff) Nell starts clapping, pleased to see someone from her table recognized even if she isn’t clear what exactly is going on due to her chatting.

Olivia Baxtor is blatantly shocked as she is announced as the seventh year head girl, her eyes wide as she covers her mouth with her hand, looking around the Great Hall in utter shock. Her shocked expression changes from a shocked expression to a grin as she spots Evan across at the Slytherin table and she giggles a little, giving a bit of a curtsey and a little wave to everyone in the hall before sitting down again quickly, obviously still a little in shock.

(Hufflepuff) Angharad O‘Duibhleargain claps as well, smiling.

Evan Geroff truly was waiting for the announcement as to who would be chosen, for Head Boy at least, but his quick smile at the news is halted as soon as Olivia is named. He stands, looking toward her with a wide grin and a mouthed “Congratulations!”, before nodding to acknowledge the rest of the hall and resuming his seat.

Once things have settled back down, Astra clears her throat. “Of course, school wouldn’t be school without a list of rules and regulations now would it? Your parents have charged us with the task of taking care of you and so we do our best to imitate them.” “I know you’re all *thrilled* over that!” The dry humor comes slowly to her, but she finally seems to be getting into the good spirits of the Sorting feast. “With that said I’m charged with telling you all that a list of banned items is posted on the Caretaker’s office door and you’d do well to familiarize yourself with it. In addition, there is to be no running in the hallways.” “Use of magic in the hallways or on the outside grounds without supervision or explicit permission by a teacher is strictly prohibited and will be dealt with accordingly.” “As usual, the Forbidden Forest is exactly that – Forbidden and trespassers *will* be harshly dealt with.” “Third year students and above are reminded to have their
permission slips to Hogsmeade signed and ready for the first weekend. Anyone who doesn’t have this will not be allowed off school grounds.” Clearing her throat, she looks around the hall. “Returning students know how I deal with rule breakers, I trust none of you will want to come to my office?” “Don’t worry, you’ll get to eat soon, but I have a few more announcements to make.”

(Hufflepuff) Alice Wexler has turned back to look toward Olivia, and claps more enthusiastically than her demeanor usually leads her too, smiling at Olivia as she sits again.

(Hufflepuff) Olivia is still shocked as she drops back into her seat, looking about the table at the contragulatory expressions, and she blushes a deep red, grinning at those around her. “Thanks,” she replies quietly, with a grin still plastered sillily across her face.

(Hufflepuff) Constance Geroff‘s cheers come the loudest of anyone around as both her brother and his fiancee are announced as the head boy and girl positions. She cheers loud enough that it seems to echo back several times over, only stopping when she throws an exhuberant hug around Olivia’s middle as she sits down at the table again. “I just knew Evan would get it! I’m SO glad that you’ve got it, too, Olivia!”

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood claps hardily despite the fact that he’s about as cheerful as a dementor with nobody to soul-suck. Or a boy with nobody to face-suck, which is what he is. “Congratulations” comes his monotone. It isn’t as if he’s ever made especial friends with Olivia. Or anyone off the Quidditch team. Or most of the people on. Or inanimate objects, even.

Waiting for about a minute to let students discuss among themselves, Astra finally holds up her hand for attention. “A few last minute notices.” “I want to again congratulate Slytherin on winning the House Cup last year and congratulations again to Ravenclaw for victory in attaining the Quidditch Cup.” “On the subject of Quidditch, the school will not be holding the traditional Quidditch tournament this year, but we promise Quidditch enthusiasts will not be disappointed.” “I am also to inform you that all greenhouses are off limits to students unless Professor Walsh is present and you have express permission to be there outside of class.” “Finally, there is to be absolutely no magical toys, candy, trinkets, or anything else of magical nature brought into Muggle Studies. If any of these items are found upon your person, Professor Helit will confiscate and dispose of them.” Letting the various warnings sink in, she finishes. “It looks to be an exciting and vibrant new term and I sincerely hope each of you finds as much fun as you do challenges.” “Now let’s eat.”

(Hufflepuff) Angharad O‘Duibhleargain shrugs her shoulders as the announcements end. Another year of being alone for her, probably. She hasn’t anything but casual acquaintances, and only a few of those – but it isn’t too bad.

(Hufflepuff) “No Quidditch?” Constance replies with a bit of a gasp. “Imagine! I wonder what we’ll be doing instead. She did say that enthusiasts wouldn’t be disappointed, and while I don’t count myself as a particular enthusiast, I do enjoy the matches.” The girl starts to help herself to some food, puzzled at this turn of events.

(Hufflepuff) “Badgers are cute!” Nell says happily. She apparently had been holding this in since she was told to listen to the announcements. “What’s the house cup? Why did Slytherin win last year instead of us?”

(Hufflepuff) Alice Wexler shrugs, not particularly concerned about this quidditch thing. Though it is strange that they wouldn’t have it. “I’m sure they’ve got something equally interesting planned, then,” she offers, reaching for plate of rolls nearby.

(Hufflepuff) “Because they must have worked harder last term or something,” Constance comments. “It was a very close cup,” she admits, pausing to take several bites of food, for she honestly is famished.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood‘s jaw fairly drops, shocked right out of his Intent to Sulk. He sits there for a moment even as the feast starts around him, and then finally, slumping a bit, he lets out a sigh that could very well be considered relieved and looks at Nell blankly. “Tell a badger it’s cute when you’re on the business end of its claws and then let us know how that went.” Mrff. He begins piling his plate in that obsessively neat and segregated way he has, leaving the explanation of the Cup to someone else.

(Hufflepuff) “I don’t like claws,” Nell said seriously. “Why did you let them work harder? I like winning things. It’s a lot of fun and people cheer for you.”

(Hufflepuff) Angharad O‘Duibhleargain fills her plate with food, letting the conversation wash over her without really paying attention.

(Hufflepuff) Constance glances at Nell for a moment, looking at her seriously. “Well, we were a bit preoccupied with our schoolwork. If you’d like to suck up to the teachers, though, you’re more than welcome.” This retort is a bit more biting than is usual for Constance, and it is clear that she doesn’t entirely trust the new girl.

(Hufflepuff) “Is that what we’re supposed to be doing?” Nell asked, looking confused.

(Hufflepuff) “Constance,” Olivia admonishes quietly. “No, we work hard to try to earn points, and whichever house earns the most at the end of the year gets the cup,” Olivia explains gently to Nell. “It just happened that Slytherin earned more than we did last year.”

(Hufflepuff) “Oh, all right,” Nell said, filling her plate. “So I have to work hard and earn points and then we can win.”

(Hufflepuff) “Is it hard to earn points?” Chester asks, cautiously. “I don’t want to do anything dangerous or anything to earn points. It wouldn’t be worth it.” Chester, for his own part has filled his plate up quite full, perhaps a bit more full than one his age and size ought. This seems irrelevant to him as he begins to eat messily.

(Hufflepuff) “I’m sure no one would let us get hurt,” Nell says, looking over Chester as if sizing him up.

(Hufflepuff) Angharad O‘Duibhleargain shakes her head and grins. “Dangerous stuff is more likely to get you losing points, I think,” she says.

Time passes and the night grows longer, but eventually Astra stands up from her chair again and holds up her hands. “We have an early and exciting day tomorrow. I hope you’ve all enjoyed yourselves, but now it’s about time to be preparing for our first day of school. Prefects please take charge of the first years and guide them back to the house commons.” “Have a good night to each and every one of you.” Trusting and confident of those left in charge, the Headmistress takes her leave of the feast without another word.

Standing abruptly from her seat, Kelly waves the youngest students from her table towards her. “Okay, first years, follow me!” She smiles a bit at this, if nothing else. She gets to boss people around! Legitimately! “First years, this way, please. Don’t get distracted or lost or I will not help you find your way later.”

Standing up uncertainly, Olivia looks to the other Hufflepuff prefects and then across the room, she spots Evan, and a smile spreads across her face. “You guys can handle it, right?” she asks them, making sure before she sneaks away, walking quickly so that Constance can’t follow and try to see where she’s headed. Quickly she makes her way toward the exit to the room, looking pointedly to Evan before slipping out of the room quickly.

Finishing the last cup of dessert, Andy nods over to Briony and Kelly. “See you in the commons, then.” Seeing that Kelly had drawn the firsties’ attention towards her, Andy thinks it’d be best to keep in the back of the small crowd of new students, not to lose one of them along the way to the Common Room.

Charlie Linwood rises from the table and tries not to look over at Gryffindor… or Slytherin for that matter. Ravenclaw is safe eyeball territory but now he’s got to cart about little people. “First years, if you follow me I’ll take you to our wonderful and glorious Common rooms, so that you can see our Illustrious Paintings and try to stake out a good chair.” Cheerful.

Briony doesn’t have any responsibility with the first years, so as she finishes her supper, she and Kalynn stand and chatting amiably, they make their way out of the great hall and up to the Gryffindor commonroom. Briony will just have to try to chat with Gabe later, after he’s finished with his prefectly duties.

Following Astra’s lead, Donovan gets up himself and heads out of the Great Hall to go crash for the night, knowing that the next day was the start of another busy year for the school.

Eleonora offers a fake smile at the first years. She hopes they will stay out of her hair this year. She starts for the doors, weaving in and out of throng of kids and heads out.

Standing up from his table along with his fellow prefects Louis does his best to not let the Quidditch news get in the way of his prefect duties. “Okay first years, this way behind me. In a neat line if you please and don’t dawdle.” He calls out motionign for a few stragglers to get in line. “That’s it, yes yes we know you can tie your shoe now get in line.” He tells another boy. With that Louis turns and motions for them all to follow him out of the great hall.

Chester Blake climbs through the hole in the wall behind the palm fronds.

“This is pretty!” Nell says, pleased, as she looks around.

Angharad O‘Duibhleargain smiles. “Yes, isn’t it?” she says. “It’s comfy, too.”

“I like it in here. I think the yellow is very cheerful,” Constance replies happily, sinking into a seat near to where Alden has gotten comfortable, grinning at the boy cheerfully, then turning her attention to the nearby girls. “I wonder what the quidditch enthusiasts will get instead of the Quidditch tournament. What do you reckon it is?” she asks the other girls.

Angharad says, “Probably some fancy competition.”

“It is cheerful!” Nell said, bouncing slightly in her chair. “Maybe we’ll do a play! That would be more fun then quidditch.”

Angharad O‘Duibhleargain dismisses the suggestion with a shake of her head. “No, that’s not enough excitement to compensate for no Quidditch,” she says.

“A play would be fun!” Constance agrees happily, seeming to come a bit out of her distrust for Nell. She pauses, considering. “Maybe we’ll get to go see some professional Quidditch matches!” The girl suggests, her eyes getting wide at the speculation.

Angharad O‘Duibhleargain grins. “That would be amazing!” she says excitedly.

Alice Wexler grabs a pillow from somewhere and stretches out on the floor near Constance’s chair, finally warming up a bit to the conversation and the crowd. “Maybe they’ll let us write the play,” she suggests, with a small smile for Nell.

“A play?” Chester considers, looking about as he chews his lip. “Well, maybe. It would be fun to help make the sets, don’t you think?” he suggests amiably. “I don’t know if I’ll care as much for Quidditch. I didn’t become very familiar with it in India, and we just didn’t get much into it when we moved back to England,” he mentions casually.

“Acting is more fun then writing, but that’s still good,” Neil said. “Watching Quidditch isn’t as fun as playing. What do they do in India?”

“Oh, they have Quidditch,” Chester answers quickly. “We just didn’t play it, really. I guess the Ministry folks who we lived around, didn’t really like it, so they didn’t play at all, so Rowan and I didn’t play as much then.” Chester shrugs as he adds this, smiling to the girls surronding him. He’s not used to be surrounded by pleasant girls.

“I’ve never played Quidditch,” Neil said, “But my mother let me practice riding her broom this summer. It was fun! I think I was good at it. I might be on the team when I’m older.”

Walking in from the cool London air and onto the train, Saphia waves to Olivia as she finds a carriage. “Good morning, Ms. Baxtor,” she whispers happily as she finds her seat, setting down Mina’s cage on the floor next to her and heaving her many bags (no doubt full of books) onto the roof racks above.

Getting herself settled into her seat, Olivia glances at Saphia with a faint smile. “How was your summer?” she asks the girl with whom she has spent all summer corresponding and trading books. As redundant as this question may be, it seems the most relevant to the Hufflepuff while she gets her own owl situated on the seat next to her, keeping her a small distance from the window, though it is clear that she has claimed this seat. “This is Gaia,” she tells Saphia. “I got her for my birthday. I couldn’t send her because she’s not big enough to carry the books, though.”

Looking inside, a woman far too old to be a student at Hogwarts is joined by a boy far too young to be a student. The two look to be a mother and son. Phoebe smiles looking around in the compartment. “Do you dears mind if Edward and I have a seat in here with you?” She asks with a friendly smile. Behind her on the floor sits several trunks presumably filled with there possessions.

Fern Featherstone steps inside the compartment and looks over the area from beneath the curtain of her dark lashes. She seems rather shy and her cheeks flush with a pinkish hue.

Riley Markham throws open the hatch to the cabin with a dark sounding of hiss — finding, to his great discomfort, that he actually has to duck somewhat under the edge upper lip of the door in order to step inside. Already donned in his wrinkled, half-open Hogwarts robes, as tossed and uncared for as they often seem to be, Riley uncerimoniously steps beside Phoebe Helit almost as if he’d not seen her, tosses his case up in to the racks carelessly, and flops down beside Saphia with his arms crossed over his now surprisingly broad chest. Almost as if in after thought to his momentary anger (which seems to flare as he looks out the window and sees his Gran waving at him from the platform), he looks to Saphia, nods in greeting, then looks to the woman — presumably a professor, since he would guess her to old to be a studen — and mutters a meager, “‘cuse me, eh?”

Saphia Bona smiles as Riley sits down next to her, running her hand over his (good) shoulder and arm as he does so, smiling and replying to Olivia, “Oh, my summer was alright, I suppose. My mother forced me out into the sun now and then, which I suppose was proper, but there was ever so much reading to do!” She remarks, looking distinctly crestfallen about such things. As the professor enters, Saphia smiles shyly and whispers, “We’d be honored to have you, Professor.”

Dolly Faeden is a nice shade of brown that clashes horribly with her red hair and tells of a lot of outdoors time in the summer. Nevermind that she lives in a forest. With her accent thicker than ever from being around similarly-worded people for three months, Dee asks, “Is it alrigh’ if I sit here?” No, really, it’s thick like mollasses. With a twisty smile, she sort of stumps in no matter the answer and gives her trunk a push toward one of the chairs. It’s heavy! Or, as she sits in front of it, opens it, and starts to dig something out, she’s just in need of something. She looks up at some noise, still digging through her trunk, and realizes there are people she knows in the compartment after all. “Riley-sir! Saphia!” Her habit of calling the Ravenclaw Quidditchers ‘sir’ seems not to have died, though at least in Riley’s case it’s vaguely appropriate. “Have a good summer, then? Did ye get bigger some how? Not that I didn’t get a little taller myself but aren’t boys supposed to grow more when they’re–oh but you are thirteen, aren’t you? I noticed with some of the muggle boys in the village where me mum’s parents live, that’s really when they start to get taller although nobody’ll explain why except that they do and really it’s the girls who start to grow a lot first but I’m only a year from that so I’ve been researching charms to make robes a bit longer ’cause Da’ won’t be able to pay for new ones in the middle of the year just because I’ve taken to getting taller too fast, you know?” She doesn’t say any of this particularly fast, although her rural Scottish accent muddles it up rather nicely.

Staring a bit mutely at the littler girl blathers on in an accent that Olivia can only partially understand, the Hufflepuff scoots her owl’s cage over a bit farther and makes plenty of room on the bench next to her. After all, she wouldn’t want to take up too much room and keep others out. “I’ve enjoyed most of the books so far. Some of the muggle history books were a little odd, but I liked reading them anyway.” She smiles a bit and looks down at her lap, seeming ponderous. It is but a moment before she reaches down into her bag and pulls out a book. “Here, this is the last one you sent. I got some new books this year to read. Dad agreed to buy me a couple while we were out shopping.” Olivia seems oddly comfortable for one who prefers solitude to strangers.

Fern Featherstone takes a few more tentative steps into the compartment and she carefully sits down upon a leather seat, perching upon its edge and pressing her small feet against the ground. She rests her slender hands against the soft fabric of her wool skirt, even as she lifts the curtain of her wispy dark lashes and looks upon those gathered her with a pensive and sheepish kind of interest.

Smiling down upon Saphia, Phoebe pats her son upon the shoulder “Go take a seat dear,” She instructs him kindly as she takes her luggage and begins stowing it in the overhead. She turns again before taking a seat by her son. “Oh! Im sorry.” She says suddenly remembering. “I’ve forgotten to introduce us, I am Professor Helit and this is my son Edward.” She looks down at the boy who is trying to hid behind her arm. “Say Hi Eddy.” she tells him gently and the boy waves silently. “He’s just a little shy.” Phoebe pats her boy on the head and gets comfterble.

“Oh, thank you, Olivia. I’ve been reading as much as I can, but wi– Wait,” Saphia double-takes, “Professor, I know Professor Helit. I’ve… well, I’ve not had class with him, but I’ve conversed. And I always thought he was distinctly more tall, male, and green booted then you were.”

Riley Markham glances briefly to the hand that Saphia places on his (good) shoulder, before looking toward the door with a hint of mild embaressment. Ultimately, his gaze falls on the young boy with the new Professor — whom he had rather curtly stepped around before. And quite despite his annoyance with the whole thing, he can’t help but offer the little lad a smile. “Makin’ ‘em smaller and smaller all the time, aren’t they?” He mutters, to no one other than himself, before being somewhat distracted by Dolly. A faintly rueful expression touching his lips. “Hey,” he mutters. Being called ‘sir’ made his teeth ache. “God, I wish this bucket of junk would get us there already.”

Dolly Faeden looks sideways at the professor. “But Professor Helit, weren’t you a man last term?” Her eyes are wide, standing up and rather rudely tilting her head and squinching her eyes and finally shaking her head, “No, you were certainly a man. I know, people said Professor Rathe caught you aflame!” She looks at Edward, and says, “Your mother used to a man.” as if this were a fact and not hideously rude of her. At least her accent might obscure some of the nonsese. She flumps back into her seat, now, and sort of peers at Fern, her shoes, and her open trunk. “Oh!” She resumes digging.

“Oh yes.” Phoebe grins and chuckles just a bit before jokingly saying to Saphia “Well Im afraid I’ve been through a lot of changes over the summer you know.” She chuckles softly and doesn’t bother yet to give them a correct statement instead she turns her attention on Riley “Oh, Eddy will not be attending the sorting, He’s my personal assistant.” She says with a smile to her son who smiles back proudly at the title. Both Phoebe and Edward have a chuckle ad Dolly’s statement but neither move to correct her yet.

Olivia watches as the other students ask the man about possibly being the illustrious Professor Helit about whom she has heard so much. It seems clear, though, that if this is the same person, she is now considerably nicer than the one who was there the year previous. Running her fingers over the cage that her owl is sleeping peacefully in, Olivia only nods briefly at Saphia before the girl’s attention is distracted. Turning her own gaze out the window, it seems her mind is beginning to wander, though the thoughts travelling through her head can’t be too poor, given the half smile on her face.

Fern Featherstone studies Phoebe suspiciously from beneath the curtain of her wispy dark lashes, clearly finding it rather strange that she once was a man. Her naturally pale cheeks are still colored with a faint blush as she continues to sit on the leather seat.

Saphia Bona looks confused, before finally whispering, “Wait, are you ANOTHER Professor Helit?” She grins wide, stunned. “How many of there are you? Oh my. What will you be teaching?” She asks, excited. “Do you use many books?”

It’s hard work being a prefect! So Evan would tell you, anyway, after having spent the first part of the train ride patrolling the corridors instead of relaxing in a compartment with his friends. That part of his duty seems to be over now, though, as he seems in no hurry to move on his way, pausing to glance into each compartment he passes. This one wins a bit more attention, and Evan sticks his head in the door, smiling as he spots Olivia, giving a cheerful nod to the others present.

“Oh yes, I was only joking.” Phoebe chuckles softly at the very idea of being Quintus. “Your other Professor Helit is my Uncle actually.” She says this as if wishing that it weren’t true. “I am your new Muggle Studies Professor, and if you have taken my class you should have already bought the books for your year.” She comments to Saphia. She looks around the compartment and spies Evan peaking in and notices his smile to Olivia. A grin plays on her own face but she says nothing of it.

Dolly Faeden is satisfied that Professor Helit has just undergone some changes over the summer and so momentarily pauses in her (apparently aimless) digging through stuff when Saphia has another conclusion. “What? Y’mean there’s ta be two?” She looks at Phoebe again and murmurs, “Well am I sorry! I thought you’d just gone by way of a bad potion, someone slipping poorly made Polyjuice inta your drink or something.” She gives Edward another glance, her cheeks bright red, and then ducks her head back into her trunk, scattering things like a change of robes and a pair of underpants in her haste to both find whatever it is she wants and not look at the others, given she made a wrong conclusion. Unthinkable. Or at least really embarassing.

Turning her head as the compartment opens yet again, Olivia appears to glance around to see whether there is, indeed any spot for another person in the area. “Oh, Evan!” she greets her friend cheerfully, beaming with pride at the badge on his chest. She doesn’t say anything more, but does smile rather cheerfully at him. Could Olivia‘s demeanor be perhaps a little brighter, and even prouder, or is it just the fact that she hasn’t said or done much of anything as yet?

Fern Featherstone continues to sit silently upon the leather seat. She glances toward Evan as he arrive and smiles faintly in his direction. She then looks toward Phoebe, seemingly relieved by something she says. She then smiles shyly, while starting to restlessly toy with the wool of her pleated gray skirt.

Looking to Fern Phoebe smiles and gently asks “Is this your first year dear?” In a kind voice of understanding. Her son leans over as well to smile at Fern and offers her a quiet wave. “It’s a little exciting isn’t it? Not to worry, it’s Eddy’s and my first year at Hogwarts too.” A Professor that never attended Hogwarts? What’s going on?

“Hello, Olivia,” Evan replies warmly. Pulling the door farther, he offers a shallow bow to the.. adult and giving a curious yet friendly look to the child with her, pausing to speak again in an effort not to interrupt conversation. Finally, “Have we got room for one more in here?”

Fern Featherstone looks toward Phoebe and nods in response to her words. A few lank locks brush up against her narrow shoulders. She then glances toward Edward and smiles warmly toward the child. “Yes, its a little exciting. Oh, you never seen the school before?”

Keelan Walsh is standing on the platform, covered in robes that seem impervious to the rain that falls thickly from the sky. “First year students, please, this way!” She swings about a lantern, held high over her already considerably tall head, to emphasize her location. “Everyone else, the carriages are–over there!” Indeed, the carriages are lit rather warmly, as though they’ve been fitted with heating for the particularly blustery weather this Sorting day. “Come on, first years! We’ve got a lovely trip planned for you.” If being drowned from above while floating across an icy lake in the dark could possibly be considered fun.

Kara Raine hopes off the train, turning back to wave towards Rhyne. “Good luck! See you at the feast.” Glancing around, the second year tries to stay up with her fellow Ravenclaws, trying to see where they need to go next. No boat for her this year.

Alden Wexler hardly seems to notice the rain as Keelan calls out for the first years — quite despite the fact that in a little under a few moments, the poor boy in new school robes is throughly soaked, head to foot. Without a word, he does as instructed, following Keelan along the way.

Ugh, rain. Olivia sighs and pulls her hood up carefully, tucking her hair back into the hood as best she can, though the water has not done nice things to it. “I’m glad we’re finally here,” she comments to Evan, making her way to the carriage and stepping into one several down.

Riley Markham throws a somewhat cold look up at the Faculty table as he enters the Great Hall — wine red hair soaking wet despite his brief exposure to the rain. His expression is nothing short of rageful as it falls upon the Headmistress, before he flops down at the Ravenclaw table with a dark, dark hiss.

(Hufflepuff) Looking somewhat bored, Orion shifts his gaze across the hall — briefly allowing it to linger on the Gryffindor table, and two girls who sit there, and also one boy who piqued his curiousity today, before allowing his eyes to settle on the Slytherin table and the statuesque Tahiri Sol. His expression somewhat coy, much like a cat staring down a mouse.

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce shivers quietly in his chair, hair only damp now, rather than dripping wet. Aside from his cloak, which is now bundled in a sloppy mess under the table, the rest of him seemed to miss the rain. “Maybe it rained so hard, the boats capsized,” he muses darkly, eyes focused on the table where, we can hope, all sorts of warm food and drink will soon appear.

Entering later than the other faculty, Astra wipes her hands nervously on her robes. Hurrying up to the table, she doesn’t greet anyone or even Arriving at the faculty table; she walks around behind it and takes her seat.

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce sits up a bit more as the first years file in. He even goes so far as to half stand from his chair before spotting one of the straggly-haired blondes. “That’s my sister,” he murmurs to the boy beside him before taking a seat again. At least he’s not staring at the table anymore.

Keelan Walsh leads the firt years out of the Waiting Room, most of them still soaking wet, Keelan herself strangely dry as she removes a ridiculously large cloak. Up she goes toward the head of the room, darting a glance at the other faculty with a ‘And why do I have to do this?’ look on her face. Then there’s a brief smile as she disappears off to the side. Returning, she carries with her the age-old stool (although it’s sturdy) with an ages-older rumbled bit of hat. This is set down in front of the Faculty table and she steps aside, clasping her hands silently in front of herself.

Fern Featherstone follows after Keelan. Her upper teeth press gently against her thin lower lip as she attempts to control her nerves, while looking over the room from beneath the curtain of her sparse lashes. She then tilts her narrow chin and looks up toward the ceiling. A gasp is heard, but Fern stubbornly and with much pride tries to control her vocal and trembling reaction. When the hat begins to sing, she looks upon it with a nervous kind of suspicion. She then looks toward the other first years, waiting to see what how they respond before stepping into a line.

Alden Wexler widens his eyes at that last line — no matter how composed a young boy appears about the process of Sorting — the notion of possibly being bitten by a old, dirty hat raises a hint of alarm as regards the patched bit of leather on the stool from the end of the line of first years. Still, he remains quiet, hands clasped in front of him, regaining his composure with a small shake of his head that sends droplets raining in a meager arch around him.

Keelan Walsh unclasps her hands and produces from a pocket a thick role of parchment. Unfurling it a bit, she repeats the instructions, “When I call your name, step up and place the hat upon your head, please. Peering through her spectacles at the first name, her voice comes, a bit unsteady, truth be told. “Castle, Rhyne!”

“I’m going to be in Slytherin, I know it,” Satinka tells Seker in a quiet whisper as she crosses her arms. Her voice is stronger and more certain than the look on her face would have one believe, but the girl appears rather focussed on the old-looking hat that sits nearby and then glances to Keelan. “Oh, I wonder where he’ll be sorted,” she comments and watches with interest as the first name is called.

Rhyne Castle makes his way to the Sorting Hat and settles it firmly on his head, doing his best to project more confidence than he actually feels. He waits in silent anticipation for the hat’s verdict.

Rhyne Castle blinks, owlishly, as he removes the hat, looking just a little bit bewildered. Although the bemused expression doesn’t fade entirely, it is joined by something at least resembles pleasure, and he puts on a more-or-less convincing smile as he goes to join his new housemates.

Falling into line behind Satinka, Seker only nods and watches nervously as Rhyne is sorted. “I met him in Hogsmeade,” comments Seker after a moment, clapping as the boy is declared a Ravenclaw. “Well, it looks easy,” Seker notes, sighing.

Fern Featherstone shifts her slight weight from one narrow foot to another as she stands in the line. She watches as Rhyne is sorted, seemingly slightly less nervous now. Her thin lips curve into the ghost of a smile. She then glances between Satinka and Seeker, clearly listening to their words.

“It didn’t hurt him, it looks like. Looks kind of easy. All you have to do is wear it. I wonder what it does. Do you suppose it just randomly picks, or if it really does decide based on, well, how you are?” Satinka whispers back, watching for the next name to be called while Rhyne makes his way to Ravenclaw table.

Keelan Walsh calls out, “Cowper, Jason,” who takes approximately four seconds before the hat calls, “Gryffindor!” and then Keelan calls another Ravenclaw, then a Slytherin and “Featherstone, Fern!”

Alden Wexler applaudes politely as Rhyne Castle is sorted in to Ravenclaw, squinting a little as the newly sorted student removes the hat as if he might actually be able to see if the leathery bit of rag actually had teeth or not to carry out the threatened biting.

Fern Featherstone approaches the hat with tentative steps, suggesting that the slender girl is rather shy. Still she throws back her narrow shoulders and lifts her dainty chin, as if trying to display a bit of pride. She reaches for the hat, while frowning with distaste in response to its ragged appearance. She then places it upon her head, leaving her lank ragged dark locks to cascade against her shoulders. Her breath quivers in the hollow of her pale slender throat, as she awaits the sorting and her small form is tense, as she sits still, silent and statue like.

Keelan Walsh claps a bit awkwardly and briefly and then continues on with two Hufflepuffs, another Gryffindor, “Linwood, Patricia!” who goes to Gryffindor as well, a Ravenclaw followed by a Slytherin and two Gryffindors and then, with a smirk, Keelan announces, “Rathe, Satinka!”

“There’s no way it’s random, are you joking me?” Seker whispers in an incredulous tone to his sister. “Haven’t you heard of the families who all get into one house, no fail?” Seker questions, crossing his arms. “No, it’s got to read your mind or something,” he says with determination, though clapping idly. “We’ll be joining her in a few minutes, hopefully,” Seker says, watching the girl go to sit down. “Go!” Seker says suddenly.

Looking startled, Satinka lets out a gasp as her name is called, and glances back at her brother, walking to the stool with unusual caution. Hesitating a moment, she looks at the hat, and then picks it up, simultaneously plopping it on her head while sitting quickly onto the stool. She bites her lip and closes her eyes up tight, seeming to be in deep conversation, or else in deep pain while she wears the illustrious hat.

With very little pause, Keelan announces, “Rathe, Seker!” as if she really needed to emphasize that he was next in line.

Still taking deep breaths, Seker does smile as his sister is sorted, nodding in her direction. One down! Now the other Rathe needed to be placed rightfully as a son of Slytherin. Hearing his name called, Seker feels like choking and fainting (life is so hard), but instead nods and steps up to the hat, sitting down and putting it on.

“It isn’t random,” Alden assures them, finally, as Satinka’s name is called. Though he chooses not to elaborate on anything else he might have gleaned from his summer reading. He draws a deep breath the closer it gets to his name being called, idly wondering if it were better that his last name was poised at the end of the alphabet, or if it might have been more simple to be at the beginning and get it over with. Indeed, despite all appearances, he is nervous. Though largely, it’s more rooted in the fact that his mother is watching from the faculty table, and seemingly a half dozen relatives are all scattered in the audience, eagerly awaiting another Wexler in their house, and sure to give him guff should he fail to share it.

Stunned, it is a few seconds before Seker comprehends the word emitted from the hat. “What?” he asks, standing up and turning around to look at his mother, his face a mask of surprise and horror. He can’t bring himself to try and look at Satinka, not after she made it and he didn’t. What is this. What it this? Seker is in a stunned reverie as he stumbles to the Hufflepuff table, not thinking, yet, to look for Rafe or any of the other Hufflepuffs he’s acquainted with. It was probably a prank or something. Well, Seker would play along for now. “Hello!” Seker greets his ‘housemates’ with a put-on genial demeanor. “What are we having?” he asks, pointing to his empty plate with a perked brow.

Keelan Walsh chokes a bit on the next name, though Sheldon, Galen sorts to Slytherin all the same. Three Ravenclaws, a Gryffindor, and yet another Hufflepuff later, she calls, “Wexler, Alden!” who is second to last in the world of Sorting unless someone has been missing from the list or Keelan‘s recitation of names.

Alden Wexler swallow a breath, Alden steps forward, moving toward the stool and the old, patched hat with an even stride. He pauses briefly to glance up at the faculty table toward Sibyl, then to the Gryffindor table toward Briony and Felicity, before exhaling a long sigh and lifting up the Sorting Hat. With a grave expression, he climbs on to the stool and places the hat on his head.

(Hufflepuff) At least Seker isn’t alone in this misery. “Still think it’s not random?” Seker asks, having dropped his false cheeriness as reality has sunk in. His mother would have chimed in by now if this really was a joke. How could this have happened? “I can’t believe this,” Seker mutters, looking down at his lap and sighing. “How could she make it but not me?”

His eyes somewhat wide, caught a little off guard by the insight of the hat, Alden quietly removes the cap after it’s shout and slides off the old, solid stool. “Thank you,” he says, politely, to the ragged bit of leather, before turning toward the cheering table to take his seat. He was certain he could feel Briony gaping at him from behind.

Keelan Walsh calls out, “Wexler, Kyler!” who takes a seat and sits there for so long Keelan is actually startled to hear, “Slytherin!” call forth from the hat. With one last look over the assembled students, she rolls up the parchment, claps briefly, and takes the stool and hat away. When she returns, it is to her seat at the faculty table, where she relaxes, duties done.

(Hufflepuff) At least Seker isn’t alone in this misery. “Still think it’s not random?” Seker asks, having dropped his false cheeriness as reality has sunk in. His mother would have chimed in by now if this really was a joke. How could this have happened? “I can’t believe this,” Seker mutters, looking down at his lap and sighing. “How could she make it but not me?”

Melvina Prichard rises from the faculty table purposefully once the ritual of Sorting has concluded, lifting her nimble, long-fingered hands in a suggestive way as she beckons the student audience for silence. “Excuse me, quiet please — yes, that includes you, Mister Alcot.” Her voice is thick and strong, but laced with an ever-present hint of amusement. An almost coy half-grin touches her lips, looks over the heart of her school.

“Greetings, everyone,” Melvina calls, her voice dancing across the Great Hall at a comfortable volume. “Welcome to your school year nineteen hundred and twenty seven! I trust that all of you enjoyed your summer vacations! As I’m sure most you of you are now aware, my name is Melvina Prichard and I am the Headmistress of Hogwarts school. Last year, all of you helped give this blustering, frugal old woman a home and a purpose. This year, I hope to reward and repay each of you for that wonderful gift. Now, pressing on, I’ve some beginning of term announcements to make.” Clearing her throat, the Headmistress pulls a pair of spectacles from her emerald robe pocket and resting them on the bridge of her nose, before gathering up a tightly-bound scroll sitting next to her empty plate.

“All the usual suspects, of course. Our caretaker has asked me to remind you check the updated list of prohibited items and punishable offenses that have been thoughtfully posted in each of your common rooms–” Drawing in a deep breath, the Headmistress begins to unroll the wound parchment, “Spellwork outside of the classroom, rough play, pranks, hijinxs, dungbombs, Whimple’s Pimple Powder..” Demonstratively, she allows the end of the scroll to slip from her fingers, clatter to the table, spill over the edge, and roll across the floor Great Hall until it exhausts itself somewhere near the door of the waiting room across the entrance hall. A somewhat playful glint sparkling in her eyes, Melvina sets her end of the very long list down and vanishes it with a flick of a wand which she withdraws from the sleeve of her robes. “As you can see, the list goes on. Be sure to check it.”

After a small bubble of laughter, Melvina takes up a blessedly smaller sheet of parchment. “Hogwarts tradition demands that I remind you the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds for all students. As seems to happen every year since antiquity, some of you will most certainly forget that pesky little rule. It just slips out, squeezed away from the building pressure of knowledge our fine professor work so hard to fill your head with over the year.” A rueful chuckle escapes her as she shares a knowing smile with the hall. “Know then that detention is the minimum punishment for entering the Forbidden Forest without a member of staff or faculty beside you, and that such acts will usually will result in a substantial loss of house points as well.” With a small, meaningful glance around and a pause to clear her throat and savor a sip of pumpkin juice, Melvina continues. “Naturally, we ask that you respect and defer to your Prefects. Also, I’d like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Head Girl, Andrew Larson and Margaret Cresterton. Mister Larson and Miss Cresterton, please stand.” She applauds once the two have risen, leading those who care to join her in a modest round of congratulations, before continuing on.

“Well done, Head Boy, Head Girl,” the Headmistress says, sincerely. “On to faculty. There are many exciting changes in Hogwarts staff this year, so to begin I hope you all with help me in welcoming Professor Phoebe Helit whom will be heading up our Muggle Studies department, and Professor Addison Williamson whom will helm our History of Magic class.” Melvina holds for a pleasant-enough round of applause before plowing on. “Also, though she has been with us a great while, I hope you’ll all help congratulate and welcome Professor Rathe in to her new role as Deputy Headmistress. Naturally, she’ll continue to provide you all with excellent lessons in your Defense Against the Dark Arts courses as well.” Another pause for applause, and quietly surprised murmurs — it was hardly a secret that last year Professor Rathe could hardly stand Professor Prichard. Now she was Deputy Headmistress? “Sadly, I must inform you that Professors Calwern and Ashcroft have chosen to step down. Professor Fallon will properly replace Professor Calwern as Gryffindor head of house.”

Following a deep, relieved breath and Melvina finally sets down the parchment and removes her glasses. “That said, I have only one more announcement to mention before we start in on the delicious feast I know you’re all patiently waiting to savor. This is my second year as Headmistress of Hogwarts school — last year was a daring step on to the path of the uncertainty for all of us. A maiden voyage, where bold choices were made, some rising to shimmering brilliance, others not so much. But in this second year, the fright of the unknown fades as well all walk in a comfortable security. Each sure we know, or at suspect, of what to expect It is in this peaceful repetition that we as a family forge traditions. Thus, I announce to you all our first of many traditions, the second annual Barefoot Social.” A sly, almost devillish grin dances over the lips of the Headmistress. “A celebration of the new term, greeting those whom are just joining us, and welcoming home those of us returning for another year. This dance will semi-formal, open to all years, and include an… outdoor feast.” The too-clever look on her face almost seems to gloat, briefly, as she looks out at her young crowd. Obviously, she is terribly proud of herself. “As this is the mother of tradition, we shall follow the precident set by last year’s grandmother event — the ladies will need ask the gentlemen for the honor of an afternoon’s courtship.” She waits, eagerly, for the reaction to that before at last finishing up. “I will be resuming the Student Events Committee, made up of students from all years to help me prepare for the Barefoot Social, Governor’s Ball, and a handful of other special events I have planned through out the school year; if you’d like to be on said Committee, you may contact me through any of the usual means. Exact details regarding date and time of the Barefoot Social shall follow shortly. Let’s eat.” And with small nod and a sly, lingering grin, she slips casually back in to her seat.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood inexplicably turns about ten shades of red and decides that yes, his hands are fascinating.

(Hufflepuff) Puffing up as his new house might suggest (what kind of name was Hufflepuff anyway?) Seker looks to his housemates, pausing on Alden and Charlie to note, “Did you hear that? My mum’s the Deputy Headmistress! What a title, don’t you think?” Seker is a flurry of emotion– part of him proud for his mother, part of him still wanting to die. Hufflepuff? Seriously.

(Hufflepuff) A glance is gifted to Olivia from the direction of the Slytherin table, and the girl seems to blush rather hard as she looks down at the spread in front of her, ladelling herself a rather full bowl of some hearty looking stew, then pausing to take a sip of her pumpkin juice. “That’s really great,” Olivia tells the boy, smiling, though her cheeks are still a bit pink. “Don’t worry, you’ll like it here,” she assures him, and not another thought is given to whatever uncertainness or disappointment the first years might feel as she begins eating and perhaps glancing a bit long at the Slytherin table.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood immediately makes sure his mouth is full at all times, finally eating like a real boy and getting all the food slopped together on the place and shoved into his mouth at far too quick a rate of exchange. As opposed to his normal behavior, which is to arrange everything neatly and segregated and eat slowly and with a semblance of manners. His cheecks are still a brilliant shade of pink, though Seker gets a bit of a nod and a muffled, “Congrdlatins” which is, thankfully, not accompanied by a spray from his stuffed mouth.

(Hufflepuff) Alden Wexler blinks, almost startled — a lady-ask-bloke social? How.. “Disturbing.” His voice only emits in a sort whisper, which she squelches by shaking his head somewhat. If Professor Walsh appeared down to earth, Headmistress Prichard seemed at least mildly insane. But it were tradition. Exhaling a soft sight, and taking a turkey leg with a serious expression, Alden ponders.

(Hufflepuff) “Yeah, thanks,” Seker says to Olivia before looking to Charlie. “You’re looking a bit warm,” Seker notices. “Do you have a fever or something?” he asks, starting to dig into his piled-up plate. “Yeah, disturbing,” Seker echoes Alden, though not knowing just what the boy thought was disturbing. “How can a hat be so wrong?”

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood swallows and protests much too loudly, looking wildly about the table for Rafe, “I’m just fine! My sister went to Gryffindor, that’s all. I was hoping she’d um… be a Hufflepuff. So I could keep an eye on here. If she asks any of you to the thing, tell her you’ve got the pox. And then get the pox. I can’t have you going or making her feel bad.” He can’t have her going because she’ll report to their mother. “Anyway, the hat wasn’t wrong, you just don’t–”and the rest is obscured as he catches a glimpse of something cross the room and stuffs his mouth again.

(Hufflepuff) “Just don’t what?” Seker demands, voracious for any information, any explanation of why he was placed here. “What’s your name? Or, more importantly, what’s your sister’s name?” Seker crosses his arms after taking a drink of juice. “I’ll be sure to inform her that I’d love to go with her, should she want to,” Seker says, though joking. He might ask Morgana, though, depending on when this social was. Morgana was really one of the only girls he knew here so far.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood is forced into coherency again, oh no. “It’s just you don’t know how good a fit you’ll be, obviously.” A swig of–well, whatever liquid substance is in his goblet later, and there’s a, “Honestly? You don’t…” an expression mixed between crestfallen and relieved crosses Charlie‘s face. “I’m Charlie Linwood.” Pause. “You know, Beater for the Hufflepuff team?” Another pause, “Captain, actually.” See? See the shiny pin on his robes? Okay, maybe it’s not that shiny. “And uh… you can’t go with my sister because she’s… allergic to black hair. She’d be sneezing all over you.” He fails to mention her name, howevever. Not that his sister isn’t the spitting image of him (to his woe, not hers), though.

(Hufflepuff) Seker lets this alleged ‘black hair allergy’ slide, but not without a roll of his eyes. “Right, right, Charlie,” Seker says, noting the pin on the young man’s robe. “Well, good luck in Quidditch this year,” Seker says with half-hearted intensity. “I’ll be cheering in the stands,” he says, a little sarcastically as he goes back to his dinner.

Rhian Brecon settles into her announcing chair and does a quick test to make sure that everything is working properly and she can be heard. “Good afternoon boys and girls, Professors and staff. Today is a wonderful and beautiful day, perfect for the last Quidditch match of the 1926-27 school year. Today, we have a battle against two excellent houses, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. These two teams have managed to win both of their previous games this year and so making them tied, point for point for the Quidditch Cup, and so this match will determine which House walks away with the Quidditch Cup this year. This match is being refereed by Professor Walsh, our Herbology Professor. And now we merely wait for the two teams to take the field and to get this match underway.”

For the last week, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team has been in constant motion, bouncing from practice to practice in a blur of manic energy. Today, Eliza Marlowe is wearing the same grin that she has worn throughout the period leading up to the big game, but her eyes are serious as she looks around at her team for the last time. “Right,” she says, her strident voice as firm as ever, but with a low quiver of intensity behind it. “This is it. This is for the Cup.” Eliza looks slowly around the circle of faces. “This is what we’ve been working for this all term. We’re going to go out there and play a good game. If we win, we win cleanly. If we lose, we lose cleanly.” A different kind of quiver enters Eliza‘s voice as she mentions the possibility of losing, but she pushes ahead. “You’ve been a good team. You’ve worked hard. Now get out there and play your best.” Eliza gives her team one last crooked grin. “Good luck,” she says, and slings her broom over her shoulder to head out for the handshake that will start the match.

Alexandra Leong looks distracted as she strolls onto the pitch, broom in hand, canary yellow Quidditch robes hanging loosely, her straight black hair contained in a rough ponytail. She nods at her Captain’s little speech, making very little eye contact with her teammates. This is it, and for the Hufflepuff Seeker, the pressures are nearly overwhelming. She shifts her grip on her broom, then starts to twirl a stray strand of hair between her fingers, a nervous gesture she’s had since before her Hogwarts and Quidditch days.

Striding out to the center of the pitch, Noémie‘s face is set in a serious expression as she looks around. The stands seem to be buzzing even louder than usual on this occasion of the Quidditch Cup. The captain and seeker holds her broom down in her hand and glances around, standing off from where the Hufflepuffs are to line up before she turns to look at her teammates. “Gather ’round here,” she calls to them, clearly ready to give them a talking-to, though how harsh she will be today is a matter of some uncertainty. The cool air seems to be causing goosebumps along her arms as she waits for her team to join her.

Contrary to Noémie’s stony expression, Tegan stomps onto the pitch, looking almost angry as she settles herself near to Noémie. Riley follows just behind her, not looking quite as angry, and Tegan almost yanks him to stand next to her. “Don’t screw up today,” she hisses at the younger student, her eyes staring into his face as she says this, until he nods affirmative. The girl stands next to Noémie and crosses her arms over one another with her broom in hand and waits to see what the captain will have to say.

Rooted to the place she’s standing while listening to Eliza’s speech, Carrie stares straight at her captain with something of a determined expression having descended upon her face after Eliza finishes up. Nodding definitively as the captain goes to shake hands, Carrie, somewhat nervously, switches her broom from her right hand to her left as she takes a few tense steps ahead. She makes a point of not looking at Marybeth, but glances down to Alexandra shortly before looking to Eldric, nodding once more.

Leaning in close with the rest of her team Marybeth has her broom clutched tightly in one hand listening intently to Eliza’s pep-talk. When the captain finishes Marybeth grins and adds. “This is for all the marbles! …. No really I’ve got a big bag of marbles I’ll split them up if we win.” Yes it was a lame stab at humor but it was lighthearted and isn’t that just the Hufflepuff way? The chaser grins a final time with a small laugh bolstering her courage before she begins doing her stretches. You always want to be nice and limber for when you are playing the most exciting game ever!

Standing a little apart from his fellow Chasers, Albert Bryce listens to the captain’s speech with rapt attention…or, perhaps, nervously glazed eyes…or, perhaps, an extremely determined effort not to look at Eldric. At any rate, he’s staring straight at Eliza through the whole thing, nodding every so often, his hand wrapped so tightly around his broom that his knuckles show white.

Charlie Linwood stands, in freshly laundered robes, with a freshly polished broom, in front of Eliza, listening seriously to her speech. This is it. “For the Cup.” he croaks back, voice belying the nerves that have settled in at the last moment. It is, after all, true. If they win this the Quidditch Cup belongs to Hufflepuff… for the first time in how long? Charlie stands unnaturally firm, though he seems to force his face into a sick grin. Today of all days it is important he not accidentally hit his team instead of the other.

Bailey Williams walks out to the pitch, broom in hand, smiling and ready to retrieve the best performance of the year from himself. Stopping at the group of teammates, he addresses Tegan with a short grin and leans on his broom, waiting for his captain’s speech.

Clavicle Gravely trots out. Sort of the clown of the team, he stops in front of the Ravenclaw stands and flaps his arms, “GO RAVENCLAW!” he slings the broom, the sandsweeper 25 over his shoulder and trots over to Noémie. His robes ripple around him in the wind as he looks to the captain.

A feeling of nostalgia sweeps over Van as she makes her way out to the pitch, standing in group with her team and glancing only momentarily at the Hufflepuff team making their shouts before turning her attention forward again. It is her last match at Hogwarts, and Van seems to have to wipe a tear away as she thinks of this, taking a deep breath of the cool air and looking up into the sky. A nice clear day, perfect weather for the determinative match for the Quidditch Cup.

Eldric Carver still has a bandaged up neck, and as possibly the largest member of the team and thus the biggest target, also sports two furry purple horns like a goat’s and, barely visible under his robes, an abundance of bright pink arm hair. “I’ll get it fixed after, doesn’t change how I play!” was his reponse when he turned up to the changing rooms with these anamolies, and now he stands trying to look serious while marked by some clever but, fortunately for the casters, anonymous hexes. For a moment, he glowers over at the blue-clad players, but then nods (and grunts a bit) to his Captain’s speech and tightens his grip on both his broom and bat without a word.

“I’ve been nice this season before matches. I’ve not demanded that we win, and yet we managed to pull out wins against Gryffindor and Slytherin. Let’s keep this up and manage a win today. Let’s get that cup, because we deserve it.” Noémie‘s face is focussed and set, and her expression as she glances to Hufflepuff is almost annoyed. “We’re not going to do any stupid chanting or pep talks, because I think we have the technical skill to manage this. So, let’s pull it off. I know we can do it.” With a nod, she offers a rather strained smile to her team and turns to face the Hufflepuff team, walking forward to prepare for the handshake. Her face is stony and set as she does this, as if showing emotion to the Hufflepuff captain during the handshake will put her at a disadvantage.

Clavicle Gravely looks over to David, as David comes out as well. Today David is in serious mode. His broom is clipped and polished and he comes up to Noémie as well.

Keelan Walsh looks absolutlely disgusting in yellow, so her robes are black instead. It could almost be called unbiased, except for the yellow ribbon she’s laced around the end of her broom (Which lies next to the box of Quidditch balls). A closed expression surfaces as she watches, in a strange, detatched way, the teams chat a bit. She straightens her shoulders when it seems they’ve had enough time, clears her throat and says, “Captains? Shake hands, everyone else? You might want to get in place to start if you’re not.” Her voices rises, though still likely inaudible to the watchers. “While this game may determine which team has the glory of the Quidditch Cup,” a smirk, soft, “I want it clean. If I have to call any fouls for roughness or underhanded tactics,” she seems to look at the Ravenclaws more, though they haven’t any more record of the behavior than the Hufflepuffs, “I will not hesistate to award as many penalty shots as possible or to ground the off ending players.” Serious as stone, now, she turns to gather up the Quaffle, but doesn’t throw it yet.

At the center of the pitch, Eliza reaches a steady hand out to Noémie, and gives her Ravenclaw counterpart a firm nod. “Good luck,” she says, with complete sincerity, and even a fainter version of the crooked smile that she gave to her own team.

Noémie‘s face barely breaks its expression as Keelan makes these comments, seemingly entirely in the direction of her own team, and then nods at Eliza, giving her a stiff handshake and withdrawing her hand as quickly as she has offered it for the traditional handshake. Noémie does not say anything in response, merely nodding again and making her way back to the line of her team to make way for the chasers to vie for the Quaffle.

Readying herself to take off into the air, Carrie takes a few cleansing breaths as she looks to her feet and prepares to play a hard game. She is only vaguely aware, somehow, when she looks up to see the two captains shaking hands. Looking avidly to Keelan and the Quaffle, Carrie takes a firm grasp on her broom and waits.

Nodding firmly after the speech, Bailey looks and walks over to Clavicle and David. Clapping into his hands he urges them on. “Let’s go guys, I want to drink a good amount of butterbeer out of that cup, when this is finished.” Then he steps into position and readies himself to shoot up for the quaffle.

Making her way to get into position as the captains shake hands Marybeth is primed and ready…. if not completely nervous. She flashes a friendly smile Eldric’s way despite his shocking appearance while Professor Walsh makes her statement. She takes a deep breath and readies herself mounting her broom waiting for word to start.

Charlie Linwood moves rather mechanically to his proper spot, bringing down his broom and lifting one leg over it to stand like a muggle child with a broom for a pony, feet still on the ground. Holding his broom one-handed as he has learned to, he holds his bat-hand in the air at what could be a menancing angle if only he didn’t look so ridiculous standing and waiting. Perhaps if he didn’t look as though he might be sick it would help as well.

Tegan uncrosses her arms and crosses them again, doing this over and over until Riley finally reaches over and snatches at her arms, forcing them to hang at her sides for the time being. Tegan glares in his direction as she stands this way, and stands on her tiptoes to see what Bailey is doing, and whether he even notices her. No, Tegan! Now is not the time to get distracted. The girl manages to shake the thought out of her head and she watches for the whistle, putting her broom in a position to be able to take off for the bludgers as soon as she can.

Alexandra Leong hops onto her broom and stands ready to take off. Her gloved hands fiddle nervously with the polished handle of her broom, rubbing at none existent smudges and scratches. “We have to win we have to win we have to win…” she mutters to herself, her face scrunched with with anxiety.

Van seems to still be trying to stifle the tears that want to fall from her eyes, and she waves rather discreetly towards the Gryffindor bleachers, a smile spreading over her face. Then she seems to realize the gravity of the situation, and she rolls her shoulders a bit, rotating her arms as if to limber herself up for the shots that might come her way over the course of what promises to be a very exciting match.

Clavicle Gravely straddles the Sandsweeper and gets ready to take flight. The Egyptian broom is ready, polished and trimmed. He looks determinedly to Bailey. “Lets hope the pratices paid off then. ” he grins, having spent quite a few days in practices with Bailey getting passes down and all. David is ready as well. He looks to Noémie and Tegan and gives a thumbs up, then turns to watch the release of the quaffle.

Eldric Carver tries a smile at Marybeth, but it seems the final Quidditch match of the season, one which is so important, has drained most of his flirtatious spirit. Moving into position, his eyes fix on Professor Walsh expectantly, legs already pushing down a bit in anticipation of take-off. Unlike Charlie, he manages to look somewhat imposing with his bat lofted, as long as nobody notices, in the slip of his robes, the arm hair, or that his horns have a bit of sparkle to them. Really.

Keelan Walsh pauses, still holding the Quaffle, to release the latch that holds the Snitch in it’s own compartment. The golden ball flies out, hovers for a second, and then soars upward erratically, as if unsure how it will fly today. Turning, now, the Herbology professor straightens. With one last look at the teams (is that the tinyest of smiles toward both?), she brings the whistle to her lips, lofts the Quaffle skyward with a strange amount of force, considering it’s one handed, and blows. With one shrill note, the Cup game has begun.

As the whistle blows, Noémie pushes off the ground and flies high up into the air as fast as she can manage. If she is high up where she can see the action, she figures she will be better suited towards catching the snitch quickly. At this point, the little gold ball is out of sight, unable to be seen from where she is high above the pitch. However, as the match has just begun, Noémie does not appear nervous at this.

Glancing momentarily at Riley, Tegan kicks off the ground and flies up, brandishing her bat in her right hand. Her arm is reared back, as if there is a bludger to be hit already, despite that the bludgers have not yet been released. “Remember, Riley! AIM!” She calls to her very sullen-looking teammate as she flies to the other side of the pitch as he is at. Riley, for his own part, makes his way towards the center, watching Keelan carefully for the release of the bludgers.

With all her speed Marybeth is up in the air gunning toward the quaffle, her expression determined losing it’s usual carefree expression. With an outstretched hand she hopes to grab it before any of the Ravenclaw chasers do. As she draws closer Marybeth pushes herself to go faster and faster until she is close enough to try and make a grab for the quaffle plucking it out of the air like so much ripe melon! The girl begins flying with all her speed down pitch ready to play he heart out in this one.

In a flash, Eliza is in the air and soaring swiftly towards the goalposts, taking up her position as Keeper. Her eyes narrow, keeping close watch on the Quaffle as she edges from side to side, covering as much space as she can. “Good luck!” Eliza shouts. “Go for it, Campbell! You’ve got it!”

Rhian says, “The two teams have come out of their respective lockers, words are exchanged among them, obviously encouraging words from the Captains to their own teams. The two Captains, Seeker Noémie Ribouet for Ravenclaw and Keeper Eliza Marlowe for Hufflepuff, come to the center were Professor Walsh waits for them, which they give their starting handshakes before the two teams take their starting positions. Professor Walsh releases the Snitch before it goes zooming off, then one last look at the teams, she blows the whistle and tosses the Quaffle into the air. The game has started. Cambell manages to get a hold of the Quaffle off the toss-up for Hufflepuff as the bludgers are also released. The Hufflepuff Chasers take the Quaffle and head down to the Ravenclaw goals, the Ravenclaws working on keeping up with them.”

Van is already up in the air when the quaffle is caught by a Hufflepuff chaser, and this causes the Keeper to fly even quicker towards the hoops, readying herself quickly. Perhaps she ought to have spent less time in practice goofing off. The seventh year is stationed in front of the hoops, however, and she holds her arms up, balancing carefully on the broom as she looks out at the clump in the middle of the field, keeping her eye mostly on the chaser with the quaffle.

Bolting into the air as the professor tosses the quaffle up and blows the whistle, Carrie is off with quick reflexes. The girl notes Marybeth’s better positioning to snatch the thing and veers left, out of her way. Seeing her catch out of the corner of her eye, Carrie flits towards the Ravenclaw goalposts, turning around after having gotten a bit closer to them, her arms outstretched. “Marybeth!”

Alexandra Leong kicks off hard and scrambles towards the snitch, but it vanishes within seconds. Grumbling, the small Hufflepuff climbs rapidly, stopping a dozen feet above the rest of the players, scanning the entire pitch for signs of the erratic little golden ball that is her query. “Come to Hufflepuff…” she says in a small voice… “I’m wearing yellow, see? We could be friends, little snitch…” This recent bout of talking to objects (inanimate or otherwise) appeared last week, after speaking with a teacup resulted in a successful transfiguration of said teacup into a skittering spider-like creature. She pays almost no attention to Noémie, at least for the moment.

Clavicle Gravely shoots for the sky in the swarm of chasers shooting up after the Quaffle. His robes wip around him and he looks determined, but he is not in the lead today, as he had a bad shove off at the get go. He sees Marybeth get the quaffle to begin with and instead tries to get into a better position to harry the Hufflepuff on the way to the rings. David shoots up as well to prepare to try to steal the Quaffle as well. The two split to try to come at the Hufflepuff girl from both sides to force her away from the rings if successful.

Keelan Walsh watches for a minute and then, quickly, frees the bludgers, ducking under them as they move at first of their own speed, with the seeming joy these inanimate objects always seem able to express at freedom. One bludger heads up at almost a straight line, detouring at last toward Bailey, though the course is random. Of course, a bludger doesn’t focus on one person. The other bludger moves skyward toward Alexandra, as if aware(though of course it is not) that the other went for a Ravenclaw. For her part, Keelan mounts her broom and begins the slow, careful circling of the pitch, eyes darting here and there with a strange intensity, alert for fouls.

Seeing Marybeth moving forward to catch the Quaffle, Albert moves to take up a supporting position. One hand out to catch the ball if Marybeth decides to pass, Albert starts to maneuver himself carefully between David and Marybeth, trying to prevent the opposing Chaser from intercepting any passes. Albert aims a quick, wary glance over his shoulder at David, keeping a careful eye on his Ravenclaw counterpart.

With the sound of the whistle Bailey kicks off and rushes towards the quaffle. Seeing that Marybeth has an advantage, he accelarates even harder, trying to tip it out of her hand. But as the Hufflepuff grabs the ball, Bailey zooms up, performing a hard turn to chase the carrier. He notices his fellow chasers approaching her from both sides and keeps follow her closely.

Spying that one bludger is headed toward one of her own chasers, Tegan begins to fly toward it quickly, her bat brandished. “Heads up, Bailey!” she calls to him, to warn him of the danger he’s in in case she should be too slow to get to it. Thankfully, Tegan catches up to the bludger fast enough to be able to give it a whack, sending it directly toward Marybeth in hopes of dislodging the Quaffle from Hufflepuff posession. Riley watches for the moment, as he is not entirely motivated to go save the other team’s seeker from being hit by a quaffle.

Charlie Linwood is in the sky as soon as the whistle blows, though he sort of hovers below the rest of the teams, waiting for the release of the bludgers. As they are, he notes the one that hurtles toward Alexandra, and makes pace to stop it, bat brandished two-handed like the club it is. Coming level, he looks, briefly, for a flash of blue, and smacks the ball away from his team and toward–it looks like Tegan. Oops. Never hit a bludger at the opposite beater, Charlie.

Flying as fast as her broom will take her Marybeth is well aware of the three Ravenclaws on either side of her and looks hastily down the pitch while maneuvering a bit snakily to avoid them. A great smile comes to her face as her savior Carrie is spotted and with a great heave Marybeth sends the quaffle hurtling toward her fellow chaser down the pitch with a yell of excitement “Carrie!” It is unfortunate however that the moment the quaffle left her hand Marybeth was struck in the side by bludger hit by Tegan and nearly slips off of her broom before catching herself. Well she seems alright for now.

Eldric Carver is off toward the bludger Charlie hits before he spots Charlie doing so as well and makes a wide, banking turn to avoid redundancy. The redirected bludger is spotted, but of course he’s farther from it than he should be and doesn’t make it in time to save Marybeth. “Sorry!” escapes as he zips past to redirect it from his own Chasers–toward Clavicle goes the bludger, at the sound of Eldric‘s bat. The horns seem to quiver, but of course they can’t be. Too small.

Wincing as Marybeth takes a rather nasty-looking blow from a bludger, Carrie has only a split second in which to compose herself. Doing so, the girl lunges down to receive Marybeth’s pass, managing to catch it using two hands. “Okay!” she exclaims, turning and bolting off in the direction of the Ravenclaw hoops, hoping to make it there before the Ravenclaw chasers can catch her.

Rhian says, “With the bludgers released, a new danger is in the game. One of the bludgers goes after Williams, though Madison manages it to deflect it before it got too close to the Ravenclaw Chaser, hitting it towards Campbell in hoping to get Ravenclaw the Quaffle. The second Bludger has gone after Leong, the Hufflepuff Seeker. Linwood manages to get that Bludger away from Leong, though now it heads toward Madison, possibly a bad move. Campbell notices she’s surrounded by blue and passes the Quaffle to Whittier, just before she gets hit by the Bludger sent by Madison. Carver gets the last of that Bludger and sends it off toward Gravely.”

Wincing at the impact of the Bludger with his teammate’s side, Albert still keeps his focus, and moves ahead to position himself for a pass forward from Carrie. They’ve practiced this dozens of times – Albert keeps his eyes on Carrie, ready for one of her fancy flying tricks. And he keeps on the Quaffle, ready for another pass so that he can bring the ball one step closer to the goal.

Startled that for once a bludger is headed directly towards her, Tegan‘s head seems to quirk a bit, but not for long as she sends the bludger flying to the group of chasers, hoping to hit Carrie this time, as she has already managed to shake up the quaffle’s posession from Hufflepuff a little bit. Riley spots the other bludger flying towards one of the Ravenclaw chasers, and starts flying speedily down toward the group of chasers in hopes of intercepting it before it hits someone. “Look out!” he calls and brandishes his bat out as far as he can manage to try to keep the bludger from hitting. He only barely manages to whack it back in the other direction, at nobody in particular before he has to pull out of the way rather than run into his own teammate.

Clavicle Gravely turns and sees the pass and whips the sandsweeper 25 around. He pours on the speed. The Egyptian broom is built for speed and soon he’s catching up to the hufflepuff, The broom catches up to the other and Clavicle sees David’s broom didn’t quite have the speed to be close enough, so he tries for a steal, He shoves at the Quaffle, and sends it off towards Bailey instead!

Charlie Linwood seems to have taken up protecting Alex, somewhat out of his head at the fact that this leaves Eldric to deal with both bludgers most of the time. He doesn’t get too close to her, but neither does he swoop in to join the main fray. Charlie‘s face has gone about as pale as it is able, though he swings his bat around in a somewhat lunatic way.

Rubbing her side furiously and just hovering in place for a moment Marybeth shakes her head to get over the pain of the blow and get her head back in the game. Again she quickly begins to fly down the pitch this time trailing a bit behind Carrie as a bit of a safety net incase the quaffle needs to be passed backward. This time Marybeth is quite careful to be on the look out for bludgers as well as Ravenclaws…. those things really do hurt. Letting out a cry of frustration as Ravenclaw steals the quaffle, she moves into position flying toward Bailey with aggressive speed.

Eldric Carver does notice Charlie’s abscense as he flies to meet the bludger with his bat. Carrie of all people on the team is under his particular protection (plus he was already right there), and so off the ball goes, this time toward Bailey, given that the Ravenclaw Chaser seems to be in line to take the stolen Quaffle. “Go!” he calls to the Hufflepuff Chasers, not waiting for the ball to get closer.

“Aughhh!” the girl shrieks in aggravation, in echo to Marybeth, as Carrie loses possession of the quaffle. Attempting to trail Marybeth without competing with her, Carrie flies a fair distance behind her. Spotting Albert, Carrie moves to compensate, trying to maximize Hufflepuff’s position for opportunities on the pitch.

Either Alexandra is exceptionally brave, or she just didn’t see the fact that she was quite close to getting creamed by a bludger. Either way, she carries on zooming about the pitch, looking for any sign of the snitch, while starting to keep an eye on Noémie. Her flying is quite solid, although her turns are wide and occasionally wobbly.

Stolen! “Blast!” Albert exclaims. He leans down over the handle of his broom, pushing himself faster to chase after the stolen Quaffle that is now heading towards his own goal. Faster – faster – he zips ahead of first Carrie and then Marybeth. Albert‘s eyes are fixed firmly on the Quaffle in Clavicle’s hand as he speeds forward, his breath quickening as he spurs his broom ever faster.

Hearing Noémie’s call, Bailey ducks on instinct as the bludger passes him and knocks Marybeth in the side. He races towards Carrie now, catching up to her and letting himself drop a bit beneath her, using her as a protection from the approaching bludger. “Watch out, Clavicle.” Bailey calls. But too late, Clavicle has been fast enough to hustle the quaffle out of Carrie’s possession. Swooping down to finally catch it, then forming up with Clavicle and David to initiate the offence, Bailey calls “David! Left!” and dashes the quaffle over his shoulder towards David at a good speed and just manages to avoid the bludger in time, hoping that he’ll get knocked away soon.

Riley has stayed near his teammates and is ready to meet the bludger, rearing his bat back and giving it a hard whack up towards Alexandra, despite the fact that Charlie appears to be guarding her closely. The bludger flies off and gratefully Riley turns his attention back to his chasers. The other bludger seems to have veered off its course that Tegan sent it off on, and the girl flies towards it to try and prevent it from hitting her own seeker, catching up to it quickly. Soon, Tegan has whacked the bludger back towards the group of chasers, aimed right towards Albert.

Clavicle Gravely races to the side and calls out “YES!” He grins then blanches as a bludger races at him “NO!” He dives trying to get away from the thing but banks…trying to lead it over to the ravenclaw beaters “Assistance!” David hears the call and takes the Quaffle, He chuckles a bit. “That boy is cursed by bludgers. ” he races back towards his scoring hoop!

Faster, faster – Albert flies in a perfect, smooth arc, his hand out to intercept the Quaffle at the peak of its flight – and then with a cry of alarm, he abruptly jerks out of the way as a bludger comes hurtling directly at him. “Aaaaahhh!” Albert manages to escape the bludger, but he is too far away from the Quaffle to even make another try for it. “Blast!” he mutters again, and speeds forward again in a desperate attempt to protect his own goal.

Charlie Linwood snorts. “Hah!” he calls. “That’s not ruddy well going to work!” Really, he’s much too close to Alex (without, you know, being so close as to crowd her) for a bludger to get through. Even in his somewhat panicked state (with a distinct sort of green tinge about the edges), he can at least smack the bludger back toward the Ravenclaws–this time, actually, toward their own Seeker and Captain.

Rhian says, “The Bludgers are getting a beating as Madison now hits one of the Bludgers to the Hufflepuff Chasers in general, while Markham manages to protect his own Chasers and sends that Bludger off to nowhere it seems. Gravely attempts to interfere with the pass to Whittier and knocks the Quaffle off toward Williams in Ravenclaw’s attempts to steal the Quaffle from Hufflepuff. With the Ravenclaw steal, the players move back the other way, though Williams now has a Bludger after him thanks to Carver. Williams tosses the Quaffle back over his shoulder to Mildred as Bryce attempted and failed to steal the Quaffle from the Ravenclaws due to one of the Bludgers getting in the way thanks to Madison. The other Bludger is sent off to Leong by a hit from Markham. Ravenclaw still has the Quaffle and getting awefully close to Marlowe and the goalposts she’s guarding. Linwood manages to intercept the Bludger heading towards Leong and sends it after Ribouet who is seeking the Snitch as well.”

Watching as Albert tries to take the quaffle and fails Marybeth hurries to try and make up for it racing at top speed around Albert and his bludger to make her way behind David. She is a bit behind though and catching up is going to take some doing but that’s what Hufflepuff is good for, trying hard. Marybeth bites down on her lip and really lays into her broom.

Eldric Carver again fails to keep the bludger from one of his Chasers, though mostly because there is only so much flying space, and over half of both teams appear to be attempting to use the same amount. Still, once Albert misses the bludger(or rather, it misses him), it’s an easy enough hit back toward David, nostrils dialated in annoyance. Well, at least continually deflecting the same bludger from and to the same people is something to do. And he does enjoy hitting them. The bludgers, not the people.

Clavicle Gravely recovers and races towards the goal. David is doing well as well, and coming in to the edge of the scoring zone. he suddenly banks right at the scoring zone edge and makes a hand off to Clavicle as the boy races by, Clavicle uses the move he and Bailey practiced a lot. suddenly braking fast and hard, he feints high and shoots at the lower hoop, It’s his first in game scoring attempt.

As David catches safely, Bailey swerves to the left hoop and waves to him, signalling that he’s unguarded. Hovering inches before the zone, he is ready to shoot into it and attempt a score. One fine pass and Ravenclaw would lead in that deciding game. But then the quaffle is tossed to Clavicle, who performed the known manouver. “Come on, Clav…” Bailey mutters and zooms lower to be set up to catch a dropped quaffle or so, watching his teammate attempting the score at the right hoop.

Tegan is ready to leave her seeker to the job she has before her, and then seeing that the bludger has been whacked in her direction, Tegan backtracks a bit, quickly hitting the bludger in the direction of the hoops, hoping that she’ll maybe get it to the Keeper, now that the quaffle is in scoring range so that her team has a chance at scoring. Riley, for his own part, makes his way towards the bludger which is headed toward David, and tries to get a hold on it. Within seconds, he has managed to catch up to it, and whacks it in a direction that he thinks will make it head toward Marybeth, but which instead seems to head down the other direction on the pitch, headed directly toward his own keeper. In a resigned fashion, he begins to fly down to retrieve it an hopefully manage to hit it actually toward a Hufflepuff.

Eldric Carver has banked back somewhat to escape the crowding of Chasers and to keep from entering the scoring zone, a glance sent toward Keelan, but now sees the bludger on it’s way to help and quickly darts into line. There is a massive CRACK as the pink-arm-haired, purple-horn bearing Beater swings back and then forward, this bludger sent chasing after Riley as well. After all, if Riley gets taken out and doesn’t save Van from his own bludger, well, that might be a penalty shot, right?

Throughout the match, Eliza has been hovering a few yards in front of the goalposts, watching the interchange of Quaffle and bludgers, shouting encouragement to her team. “Good! Right, keep it up! Good save, Bryce!” And then, suddenly, the Quaffle is heading towards Eliza, and she is speaking to herself. “Right! Here it comes!” With a little upwards skip, she takes off towards the right-hand goalpost, keeping her eye fixed on the ball. Aiming…aiming…and then WHACK! she spins swiftly to block, hitting the Quaffle away from the goal with a firm smack of the bristles of her broom.

Clavicle Gravely flies stright through the zone and out of the other side. He begins circling back, unlike what some may think, he is not dissapointed he was blocked. Quite the contrary, he looks exstatic he got to try. “I’ll get it next time!” he calls out to Eliza as he circles around laughing, he looks to see where the quaffle is. David never entered the zone, he’s all business, and zips down to assist Bailey to attempt to get the Quaffle.

“Where are you, little snitch?” Alexandra continues to mutter to herself. “Don’t you like me anymore? Come on little snitch… I’ll be gentle…” She’s flying in faster and faster circles now, a sense of desperation and panic raising in her chest. “Snitch snitch snitch… snitch… SNITCH!” A glitter of gold catches the small girl’s eye, and immediate she starts to zoom towards the stands.

Sighing a breath of relief when the Quaffle is deflect Marybeth hurries a bit faster trying desperately to catch up and catch it. She is nearly next to Clavicle and begins racing with him giving him a bit of a glare…. well as much of a glare as a Hufflepuff will muster that is. Her eyes quickly dart forward though onto Bailey.

Tegan flies quickly down the pitch toward the bludger, as she certainly doesn’t want to give Hufflepuff free penalty shots, especially if Van is taken out by it. She manages to get to the bludger in enough time to block it from Riley, and she sends it flying toward Marybeth this time, rather than back toward the keeper. The crowd around the goals causes Tegan to fly back toward it quickly so as to save her own teammates from the bludger if necessary.

“Argh.” Bailey hits his broom and dives for the bounced off quaffle, which just passed him by a few yards. He picks it up, hoping that David and Clavicle got out of the zone quickly enough and rushes towards the left hoop, trying to catch Eliza off guard. “Hewk!” Bailey strikes out and fires the quaffle at the hoop, leaning hard into the shot to give it an enourmous boost. Then he performs a curve and watches the ball rushing for ten points.

Rhian says, “Carver manages to protect his Chasers by sending the Bludger off toward Mildred is passing the Quaffle off toward Gravely to make a scoring attempt. Madison sends one of the Bludgers off to Marlowe, who is intercepted by Carver, which is now going after Marcham, who in turn just sent a Bludger down at his own Keeper, Douglass and is now attempting to intercept it once more. Marlowe protects the goal by knocking the Quaffle away with her broom and while Gravely and Mildred get out of the way, Williams manages to recover the Quaffle to try and score again.”

Riley Markham curses, quiet loudly, as he darts across the pitch after the bludger he sent sailing toward Van. He wasn’t having a terribly good game so far, he thought. Trailing through the sky as fast or faster than the safety regulations for a Windwalker would suggest, he demonstrates a hint of his only real talent, it would seem, on the quidditch pitch — trick flying. Out-running the by fractions, he does his best to position himself between it and the keeper.. only to find Tegan having taken it out from under him. He can’t help but shoot the girl a somewhat angered, narrowed expression. Floating there for a moment with no real purpose, he watches the cluster of people at the other end of the pitch for a long moment before drifting that direction, until he’s lingering around mid-pitch.

Eliza‘s relief at protecting her goal lasts for barely a second before the Quaffle is back in action again. Speeding across the length of the goalposts, Eliza leans down, kicking her heels back as if by doing so, she could make her broom go faster. Closer, closer – Eliza turns outwards, trying to intercept the ball before it can reach the goal It’s to no avail, though – the Quaffle gets to the goalpost a fraction of a second before Eliza does, and it goes through. “Blast it!” she cries, her face crumpling with frustration as the opposing team scores.

Clavicle Gravely does something very odd to Marybeth. he waggles his eyebrows and winks. Clavicle is having the time of his life. He comes up neck and neck with the Hufflepuff girl and pours on the speed, trying to outclass her broom with the egyptian sport model he’s using. He’s racing her. What a cheeky bugger. “Nice hair.” he comments as he pulls ahead a bit. David is racing around back as well. Heading towards the : Quaffle, waiting for it to hit play again!

Spotting that Alexandra has started flying quickly toward something that she herself can’t see, Noémie turns quickly and starts on Alexandra’s path, trying to catch up to the other seeker to hopefully overtake her and snatch the snitch out of the air before her. After several moments, Noémie manages to come up to full speed and comes neck-and-neck with Alexandra, flying perilously close to the girl on her left, trying to keep up as well with the tiny gold ball.

“Aww nuts!” Cries out Marybeth as the Quaffle is scored and Ravenclaw gets in the lead. Worse still that little ravenclaw twig is _hitting_ on her distracting her badly and eliciting another glare. As she turns Marybeth is indeed so distracted that she has no idea that there is a bludger coming right at her until it is far too late. Again poor Marybeth is pummeled this time right in her stomach taking the wind right out of her and probably her lunch too, though wether from the bludger or from the younger boy’s advances is anyone’s guess.

Bailey raises a fist into the air as the quaffle sails through the hoop with a loud “CLONK!” Not saying anything, as the game isn’t decided at all yet, Bailey nods over to his fellow chasers and gets back into formation, peering for a cheer or any other reaction from Tegan, until the game is continued.

Eldric Carver throws Eliza a look, whether sympathetic or annoyed, it’s hard to tell, but either way, he’s distracted from his duties–and then there’s bits of lunch in the air and Eldric swerves hard to the right to avoid being splattered, and misses. Now he’s got purple-and-sandwich colored horns, and bits of partially digested something in his hair. Behold the Hufflepuff’s elder beater’s panic. “Disgusting! Campbell!” Far be it for him to feel sympathy or responsbility, he’s got bits of regurgitated food in his hair. Apparently, far be it for him to remember the closeness of the bludger until it’s almost too late again. Flying erratically, he hits it away-up, really, just far, and continues doing weird circles to get the vomit off without, you know, touching it.

Clavicle Gravely nods to Marybeth. “I had the pea’s for lunch too. by the by…there’s a bludger coming.” he zips off having a laugh. He gives a hands up victory fist to Bailey. “Good show!” He sighs, maybe he can score next time. “I’d stay away from the ham before a game next time though.” David can’t help but go, “Ewh, Gravely…that’s just…gross!”

Gulping back her frustration and anger, Eliza zips behind the goalposts, dipping down to retrieve the fallen Quaffle before it can descend any further. “Blast, blast, _blast_!” she mutters, her expressive face still crinkled in a frown of discontent as she soars back up to the level of the other players, the Quaffle held securely in one hand. Up goes Eliza‘s arm, drawing back to wind up, and then she sends the Quaffle flying in a high, graceful arc over the cluster of people crowded around the Hufflepuff goal with a forceful overhand throw. “Campbell, are you all right?” she calls, a different sort of frown coming to her face as she watches her Chaser’s plight. “Carver! Focus!”

Riley Markham curses, quiet loudly, as he darts across the pitch after the bludger he sent sailing toward Van. He wasn’t having a terribly good game so far, he thought. Trailing through the sky as fast or faster than the safety regulations for a Windwalker would suggest, he demonstrates a hint of his only real talent, it would seem, on the quidditch pitch — trick flying. Out-running the by fractions, he does his best to position himself between it and the keeper. Ultimately, it’s a narrow victory on Riley‘s part. Inching out ahead of his clobbered bludger, he has very little bat-room to swing and his deflection away from Van sents it up high and above the grouped crowd on the end of the pitch, angling up toward the sky. Still, the power he puts behind the hit rather substantial. The sound of the bat cracking against the leather cannonball is echoing. “At least I can do something right!”

Charlie Linwood is startled when Alex begins moving in earnest toward the stands, and looks wildly about himself for signs of the bludgers. Down, he goes, as the bludgers soar upward–”Hey, Carver, what are you playing at?” Charlie missed any Quaffle and/or Gravely induced vomiting, and instead hits the first bludger back down at the group of Ravenclaw Chasers, and turns tail to get to the bludger and aim it again at Noémie. Just a little bit further–CRACK! Well, hopefully it won’t get too near Alex, who he watches with no small amount of trepidition.

Pulling hastily away from the distressed Marybeth – and giving Eldric’s filth-covered form a look that is decidedly less romantic and admiring than any she has given him before – Carrie keeps her focus on the game and races up towards the Quaffle. Looping neatly around Clavicle’s back, Carrie reaches out to snatch up the Quaffle in one hand, holding on to her broom with the other as she speeds towards the Ravenclaw goal. Albert circles around the other way, giving his other teammates a wide berth, and starts flying ahead of Carrie, positioning himself for a forward pass.

Rhian says, “Williams gets back into position and Ravenclaw scores! Ravenclaw has made the first score of the game as it is now Ravenclaw-10, Huffelpuff-0. Marlowe takes the Quaffle and tosses it to one of her own Chasers, Whittier , who with the others heads down the other side of the pitch to try and answer the Ravenclaw swore. The Bludgers come flying back around, one heading towards Campbell which her, once more. See’s she’s having some bad luck today with those Bludgers. The other one Markham manages to deflect from Douglass, sending it off into the sky with quite an amount of force. Linwood manages to get one of the Bludgers, sending it after the Ravenclaw Chasers. What is this? It seems the Seekers have found the Snitch. First it was Leong and Ribouet is after it as well. They are neck and neck as they chase after the Snitch. The match and the cup rely solely on these two ladies as they go after it. Linwood has now sent the second Bludger after Ribouet to try and get her off the chase of the Snitch.”

Both bludgers go flying at once, and Tegan is alarmed to see her seeker targeted once again. She flies quickly toward the bludger in hopes of catching up to it. The seekers are moving very quickly and the girl is having a tough time catching up to the bludger, but she does finally manage to do so, hitting it toward another Hufflepuff chaser with an echoing crack.

Wobbling badly on her broom as the bludger is smacked away by Charlie Marybeth can’t seem to get her broom to go forward even though she is leaning hunched over cursing the sarcastic ravenclaw’s name (which she wished she knew… so she could actually curse at it you know.) she begins sinking toward the ground slowly until she is safely on the grass before collapsing on her side.

Alexandra Leong clenches her teeth as she zooms straight for the stands. Noémie’s presence is not lost on Alexandra. She urges her broom on, gaining a bit of speed, but the quickly upcoming stands forces her to abandon speed for manuverability. The snitch is quite clearly in front of her, a fluttering golden ball, extremely speedy, and extremely erratic. The Hufflepuff Seeker almost slams into a supporting beam holding up the stands as she follows the snitch. Weaving between the various beams, supports, and struts, she tries to keep up, and almost succeeds… until she grazes a beam with her left arm, causing her robes to rip, revealing a deep, argry looking scratch.

Clavicle Gravely was going for the Quaffle as well but Linwood’s well aimed blow sends a bludger at him, His face blanches and he dodges to the side as the cannonball like bludger slams right by him, “Great bones… that thing gave me a shave as it went by… and I don’t have whiskers yet! Markham! A hand!” he zips around to head towards a beater to get the bludger off of him. David banks swiftly and takes off after Carrie to try to Harry her Scary scoring attempt!

Noémie manages to avoid the beam, but is forced to dive a bit and pull back up as she tries to avoid getting hit, pulling forward ever so slightly from Alexandra, but she is still unable to grab onto the tiny gold ball. While they zoom about, avoiding the supports and the beams, and then soon they’re out of the bleachers again, flying now behind them, out of view of the pitch, and thankfully, out of range of the bludgers. The girl’s balance seems off, and her broom begins to veer of its own accord, separating her distance with Alex until she is a full two feet away, though she tries to guide the broom back closer to where the snitch flies. Soon, there is a swift right turn and she follows the snitch back into the stadium, barely missing a beam to the head as she closes the distance between Alex and herself again.

“Campbell!” Eliza shouts. “Get to the nurse! Whittier! Bryce! Spread out! Cover that ground! Only two of you now! Good work, Alex! Keep going!” Either Eliza is no longer feeling the pain of letting the shot go through, or she has gotten too busy with her teammates’ plight to pay much attention to her own emotions. “Come on! Carver, focus! Whittier, watch out behind you! Come on, Alex!”

Charlie Linwood is totally distracted by the disappearance of the Seekers underneath the stands, eyes trying to follow them as he catches glimpses of yellow and blue through the beams–and then there’s Noémie again, and Alex with a cut. “Oi!” Then Charlie seems to remember his duties as a Beater, and spins around to look for the bludgers. Quickly he zooms, rather faster than normal, and the bludger is this time aimed for the Ravenclaw Chasers. He isn’t about to risk putting Alex off track by aiming at Noémie, that’s for certain.

Eldric Carver is very, very distracted by his state of disgustingness, but at the reappearance of Charlie where he belongs there’s a” Took you long enough, Linwood!” and a redoubling of efforts in order to look better. The bludger that missed Clavicle is zoomed toward, now, Eldric‘s expression determined that he get to it before one of the Ravenclaw Beaters can.

Alexandra Leong can’t hear anything but the whistling of the wind past her ears. She’s struggling with her control of her broom; with one arm injured, her turns are becoming less and less controlled. She’s slowing down, little by little, as the pain of her arm starts to register. The snitch is gaining a larger and larger lead on both Seekers, and it threatens to disappear into the sky once more. “Come on come on come on…” Alexandra mutters as she flattens herself further on her broom, hoping to gain speed and control.

Following their captain’s instructions, Carrie and Albert split off, veering sharply towards opposite sides of the field while Carrie accelerates, struggling to move past Clavicle. Albert, too, tries to maintain his speed as he spins off from Carrie – but a bludger is whistling towards him, and he lets out a yelp and wheels even further to the side, sending himself spinning into a barrel roll. Charlie saves him from the bludger, but vertigo is another story – Albert shakes his head quickly to clear it. From far ahead of him, Carrie still has time to laugh, “Leave the fancy flying to me, Albert!” as she speeds ever faster.

“Argh!” Tegan hollers as Clavicle shouts about the bludger, doing her best to go and intercept the one headed toward her chasers now. “Let’s pull close!” she suggests to Riley, flying in toward her team as fast as she can manage and rearing her bat back. The girl is soon amidst the thick of things, her bat held high as she whacks the bludger quickly toward Albert this time, trying to knock out as many opposing chasers as she can manage. “Get the other, would you?” she calls to Riley and bites her lip, following in the direction that she has hit the bludger in case of a quick return.

Riley Markham lofts his brows and dashes forward from having been more or less waiting at mid-pitch, sparing a somewhat side-long look toward Clavicle before pulling up high enough to collect the bludger, somewhat above the rest of the tightly knit group of chasers mingling below. A small bunt to hold the bludger more or less stationary is followed by a hard whack — supposedly in the direction of the approaching Eldric, in an attempt to de-bat him. Instead, however, the bludger archs upward toward Leong, quite by accident, in a startling burst of speed and power.

Rhian says, “Tegan has managed to get the Bludger away from Ribouet and Leong as the two Seekers now disappear among the stands… but there… Leong seems slightly hurt, loosing some ground on the Snitch. Gravely almost got hit by one of the other Bludgers, quite a close call as help is called for the Ravenclaw Chasers. There’s the Snitch, as it and the Seekers come back out onto the pitch. Ribouet seems to have lost a bit of ground on Leong but is working hard to gain it back. Campbell seems too hurt from the two Bludger blows in order to continue as she leaves the pitch to be seen by the Nurse. Linwood has learned his lesson and now sends one of the Bludgers back to the Ravenclaw Chasers who outnumber the Hufflepuffs 3 to 2 in their Chasers. Let’s see how long the Hufflepuffs can hold onto the Quaffle. The Bludgers are going everywhere, Bryce has had to dodge one, the beaters are going insane trying to keep the Ravenclaws off the Hufflepuffs or the Hufflepuffs from scoring.”

Going after Albert and getting between him and Carrie, Bailey watches the quaffle and Albert, trying to guard him as close as he the speed allows it.

Resisting the urge to shove her shoulder into Alexandra, Noémie flies straight for a moment, and then as the snitch ascends, she makes her way into the sky, flying up higher and higher, trying to get her fingers around it. Having the other seeker right neck-and-neck with her makes it more difficult, as well as the snitch staying just out of reach. Noémie‘s face is red from exertion as well as frustration at not having caught the snitch yet, despite the chase it has been. Grunts emit as she reaches out for it, trying to wrap her fingers around it, but only tapping it with them instead, and the snitch begins to descend again at a very steep angle. Noémie follows, however precariously diving as she has practiced so hard. The improvement is apparent, though she is still not all that great at it.

The situation among the Hufflepuff Chasers remains the same: Carrie is still in possession of the Quaffle, and the same bludger is still chasing after Albert. “It’s like that thing has it in for me!” Albert mutters, as he glances apprehensively behind him at the bludger, searching for his team’s Beaters. And then Bailey closes in on his other side, and Albert is caught weaving back and forth, frantically trying to avoid colliding with the bludger on one side and the Ravenclaw Chaser on the other. Carrie attempts to evade with a sharp curve that sends her into a sideways loop, holding on precariously with one hand while still trying to maintain her grasp on the Quaffle.

Charlie Linwood gives out a strangled yell as the bludger moves toward Alex, “This is why I was watching her!” He shoots off to intercept, while being mindful of not getting in the way. Difficult buisness this, as Charlie circles round behind them (sharp! thanks to a lot of practice at it) and manages, barely, to hit the bludger straight diagonally down the other way–more toward the ground than any particular group of people. His face is pale again, but furious.

Alexandra Leong‘s heart almost stops when Noémie grabs at the snitch and makes contact. Luckily, it’s not over yet, and as Noémie pulls into a steep dive Alexandra follows effortlessly. The dive ends only several feet from the ground. The Snitch flattens out it’s trajectory suddenly, and the Hufflepuff Seeker pulls up to follow. The trio – Noémie, Alex, and the snitch – continue straight at breakneck speeds, with neither Seeker within reach, until the snitch makes a sudden left turn. Alexandra pulls left hard, but her arm throbs, and her turn isn’t as sharp as it needed to be. She starts to lose speed as pain shoots up her arm.

Rhian says, “The Snitch flies high into the sky, the girls now neck and neck as they case after it. Ribouet seems to almost have it… but no, it dives to the ground, the two Seekers going after it. It seems one of the Bludgers likes Bryce as it continues to chase him around and away from Whittier who still goes for Douglass and a goal. However, Bryce comes back around and causes Whittier to go into a loop, trying to desperately hang onto the Quaffle. Bludgers flight back toward the Seekers once more though Linwood manages to protect them once more. A hard turn by the Snitch causes Leong to lose ground once more as it seems her arm is bothering her again.”

The flight to the groun causes Noémie to go breathless and she is perhaps just a bit slower than Alex in pulling out of it, and it takes several feet before she has managed to right herself and even up with the Hufflpeuff chaser. As the snitch turns left, Noémie follows suit, turning as hard as she can manage and thrusting her arm out, closing her fingers around the tiny ball with a shout of victory. She had managed to catch the snitch! Ravenclaw wins! She flies down to the center of the pitch and holds up the snitch, her face joyful, and are those tears on the Ravenclaw seeker’s face as she laughs for joy, thrusting her fist into the air again and again jubilantly. “We did it!” She shouts.

Eldric Carver is having a hard time keeping up with the bludger and the Hufflepuff Chasers, given that he had to completely change course to do so. Finally, he joins the fray, grip on his bat so tight his that the whitness in his knuckles seems to spread, he slams into the bludger full force, sending it arcing skyward, as much toward the Seeker-Snitch train as he can from here, hoping Alex will dodge and–there is a very, very loud string of curses here, as the vomit-and-hex covered Beater deflates, quite literally sinking down at a slow, defeated pace.

Rhian says, “Ribouet is still on the Snitch though and manages to catch the Snitch! Ravenclaw wins the match and the Cup! Final score is Ravenclaw – 160, Hufflepuff, 0. A marvelous game by both teams indeed with an excellent chase provided by our Seekers. A wonderful end to a wonderful season for Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff did a wonderful job as well. That is it for Quidditch this year, the next match not starting until November of this year. Well, I am Rhian Brecon of Ravenclaw and I’m signing off for the last time this year. Good luck with your end of term exams everyone.”

Alexandra Leong sinks dejectedly to the ground (luckily not too far up), holding her left arm with her right hand, and grimacing. She is clearly in pain – not surprising, as there is a rather large slither embedded in the poor arm. Tears are falling down her cheeks. She nearly falls off her broom as physical and emotional exhaustion catches up with her.

“Bloody — ” Tegan calls, pulling out of the chase she has been in, she makes her way down to the groun. “Bloody brilliant!” she calls gleefully and throws her arms around Noémie. “Champions!” Her voice rings out loud and echoes as she laughs with Noémie, her joy having overcome her previously serious attitude. “We did it!” The Ravenclaw bleachers seem to have erupted with incredibule noise at this and the girl is hopping up and down with sheer energy, though lord knows how she could have any left.

Keelan Walsh is watching, and has been, and several times she’s had the whistle up and had to drop it at the last moment. Now, however, as the Ravenclaw Seeker closes her hand around the snitch and announces the win, Keelan blows-hard-on the whistle and then, without looking much, zips down to the box. Amid the celebrating Ravenclaws (and the noise from the stands ringing in her ears), she shoves out her open hand. “Snitch please.” Pause, “So I can put it away.” From accross the pitch, some students, jubilant, carry the silver Quidditch cup. A very terse “Congratulations.” is all Keelan has besides a demand for things to be cleaned up. Poor Ravenclaws, a lot of them will have to go to Herbology this week.

Clavicle Gravely almost falls off the broom! “We won? WE WON! ALRIGHT! Great catch Noémie!” He does a prouette in the sky, a spin on the broom and zips off towards the ground where he will try to lift noémie up in a victory dance!

The fight goes out of the bludger – and out of Albert and Carrie, too, as the thunderous cheer erupts from the Ravenclaw bleachers. With one last look at each other, their energy fading swiftly into disappointment, the Chasers drift down to the ground, starting to cluster towards Alexandra and the fallen Marybeth.

Was that…? No, it couldn’t…or really? Noémie has caught the snitch and Ravenclaw has won the cup. It’s like a huge stone falling from Bailey‘s head and a wave of joy filling him up. “We won it! Wooohoooo!” he shouts, raising his fist and cheering wholeheartedly. Bailey performs a huge turn over the Ravenclaw bleachers and then lands on the pitch. He runs towards his teammates and helps Clavicle to lift up Noémie to celebrate their captain.

Looking quite green Marybeth stares up at Clavicle as if willing him to fall off of his broom when the game is won. “Well…” she croaks out rubbing her stomach. “Im still splitting up my bag of marbles so the joke is on you Ravenclaw.” Yes even with possibly broken ribs, a defunct stomach and scars of ravenclaw flirtation Marybeth is still a joker.

“Bravo!” Van calls as she has finally made her way to the ground, coming in to hug her captain and the other female beater. “Good on everyone!” she says, the tears that have been threatening to fall finally coming streaming down her face. “What a way to go out!” she comments, but her comments are drowned by the noise on the pitch as she celebrates with her teammates excitedly.

For the briefest of moments, Eliza‘s face crumples, her eyes closing against the sight and sound of the other team’s victory. But she opens them again, and swallows hard, and brings her broom down to earth in a smooth, controlled arc. Eliza steps lightly off of it, runs a hand backwards through her dark hair, and begins to stride, shoulders straight and posture upright, towards the center of the pitch for the closing handshake.

Charlie Linwood bites his lip and lets himself go limp. It was over. They hadn’t won, but they put up a good fight. Not typical behavior, this time when he flies down to the pitch he stays with the team, giving Alex a–well it’s almost kind look. “Want to go to the nurse, Leong?” That’s about as many words as he’s said to her in a row for a long time. Eliza, he doesn’t look at. Actually he’s mostly muttering things to his chest rather than looking up at people’s eyes or anything.

“Oh, right, sorry Professor,” Noémie tells Keelan and wipes her eyes from their tears as she hands over the snitch to the referee, detatching herself from her excited teammates. “No, no, guys,” she tells the boys who seem to be bent on picking her up in celebration, and she strides over to Eliza, putting her hand out much more cheerfully. The girl’s face cannot hide her obvious joy at being the winners of the match. “Well matched,” she tells Eliza with a mighty grin. Looking to the stands, there appears to be a Ravenclaw fifth year who looks to be trying to garner her attention, and she waves excitedly. “I’ll see you all in the commonroom later, there’s sure to be a party!” she tells her team and trots off, looking at the stands, where the boy has disappeared, and makes her way off the pitch very quickly, broom still in hand.

Clavicle Gravely then does something differen’t After hopping around with the team, he crosses the field to the hufflebuff side and offers first, Charlie a hand. “Good show.” he says stoically.

Keelan Walsh closes her hand on the snitch and turns to put it in the box. The bludgers have moved in and are strapped down, still somewhat wiggly from getting used. With a click, all balls in need of restraint are returned, and now the Quaffle is placed in as well. Noémie runs off without the cup and so it is presented to the rest of the team, though it seems that as Keeper and oldest, it is shoved closer to Van. Keelan, for her part, moves away from the students (especially as those in the stands trickle down) and out.

“Good match,” Eliza replies, with a firm nod and a sincere tone, giving Noémie’s hand a strong shake, with a true, honest smile that even lingers for a moment after the handshake has finished. And then Eliza is off towards the edge of the pitch, reaching Alexandra’s side in a few long, swift strides. “Come on,” she says softly, stretching her hand down to touch Alexandra’s shoulder gently. “Let’s get you up to the nurse.”

Alexandra Leongshakes her head at Charlie, although her arm is turning an interesting shade of purple. She is trying very hard not to burst into tears, but her efforts are less than successful. In a few seconds, she completely loses control and flings herself into Charlie, sobbing into his shoulder.

Does Charlie look like a crying post? Still, he’s in such a subdued mood that he merely pats her back a bit awkwardly and lets her cry. “It’s okay, it isn’t your fault the Snitch went under there. You’d've had it otherwise, really.” Clavicle’s offer of a handshake is just stared at–he does, after all, have a girl sobbing on him. He still won’t look at Eliza, and probably won’t for at least a week or so after this.

Clavicle Gravely lets his hand drop awkwardly. “Right then.” he nods and looks to the other Hufflepuffs, “Good match.” but feeling more awkward then anything he heads back to his side’s locker room.

There is no anger in Eliza‘s expression as she looks down at her teammates – just sympathy, and a little of her own sorrow. “Come on,” she says again, still softly, with a gentle but strong tug at Alexandra’s shoulder, transferring the weeping girl from poor bewildered Charlie to herself. “Let’s go.” Eliza swallows hard, and starts to walk her sobbing Seeker off the field.

Donovan Harrison stands in the center of the Quidditch Pitch, not in his usual robes but in more appropriate referee robes for the game. With a broom in one hand, he also has the box full of those well-known Quidditch balls that are needed. He waits patiently for the two teams to arrive and the captains to come over to him to do the usual pre-game ‘meeting’ with the referee of the game.

Rhian Brecon settles into the announcer’s seat and clears her throught. “Good afternoong everyone, what a wonderfully white day to have a quidditch game, isn’t it? I hope everyone is nice and bundled up like I am, though I’m sure the two teams today won’t need it. Today’s game we have Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, two excellent teams so this should ideally be a good game, despite the weather. Today we have, for the first time this year Professor Harrison of Transfiguration refereeing this game. Let’s just hope that we will be able to see this game, as well as the Quidditch players.”

Marie-Anna Greyton steps out onto the pitch in the colours of Gryffindor House. Broom in hand the captain makes her way over towards the referee of todays match. “Professor,” the teen gives with a slight nod of her head as she looks towards the rest of her team, and towards the Hufflepuff team.

Wandering out to the pitch, Briony seems to be feeling almost ill as she steps onto the pitch for the third and last time during the season. Granted, the girl has practiced all she could manage for this last and final match, but while she is quite adept at blocking the shots of her own team, her confidence is still lacking when it comes to blocking shots from those whose movements she cannot predict.

As it is his first match for the Gryffindor team, Sebastian Praw is more than nervous. He is trying to hide his excitement behind short smiles and because he’ll be the seeker today, he’ll be watched especially hard by everyone. Of course dressed in Gryffindor colors, his nearly mint broom in hand, Sebastian is standing on the pitch next to his teammates, waiting for the game to begin. Agitated, he rubs his short blonde hair with his free hand, wondering if he’ll be successful today.

Eliza Marlow strides onto the pitch with a confident gait, her broom on one shoulder. She gives her team a wide smile, projecting her confidence at them, hoping to calm their nerves. “We will do just fine,” she said to them as she motioned for all the members to gather around for a quick huddle. “We’ve worked hard, and we’ve really improved, even after our last game. We won against the Slytherins, and we will win here. Now let’s go out and play hard. Chasers, remember to work together, and keep an eye out for the bludgers. Beaters, you need to know where everyone on the pitch is, on our teams and theirs. Alex, don’t let your nerves take over your flying.” She paused in her impromptu little speech, and flashed a grin at her team. “You are all great flyers, now let get out there and win this for Hufflepuff!”

Donovan Harrison gives a nod to Marie-Anna and then looks to Eliza as they both stand on either side. “Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell either of you that we should have a good, clean game. Just be careful of course, with this weather. Now, shake hands, get in position and let’s get this game started then.” He lets the captains do such and turns to the box with the Quidditch balls and opens it up to get ready to release the four different balls into the air.

Following the team captain, Eldric Carver walks on the pitch, sporting his trademark confident smile. The boy walks with his chest sticking out proud, his broom is swung over his left shoulder. As he walks forward, he toys with his heavy bat in the right hand, and he occasionally waves to a few people he knows and who are sitting on the bleachers. “We’ll smite them!” he replies with a broad grin to the captain’s little speech.

Marybeth Campbell wanders out to the Pitch, this time with her very own scarf on, near Carrie as usual. Her own broom is held carefully, and she keeps brushing snowflakes off of her robes with her free hand, if just to keep them from melting and soaking through before the game has even properly started. Listening to the speech, she punctuates the end with a bit of an excited yelping noise and “Right! We’ll win!” but then she gets into position for kicking off.

Charlie Linwood is practically bouncing on his feet as he comes out, not even half as ridiculously bundled as he has been for the last several …dozen… practices. No, he’s still got on a full set of clothes under his Quidditch robes, gloves, scarf, hat, and cloak, but that’s about a layer less than usual. After all, it’s a game and if he’s used to being weighed down, this should help. The other Hufflepuffs get a grey-eyed glance, but any turn of the mouth up or down is concealed, as usual, with the thick black and yellow stripes of his scarf. Clutching his broom, it seems that Charlie is not about to display any nerves. Just don’t mind the way his eyebrows are kind of twitchy. Even with Eliza’s characteristic enthusiasm, he’s Charlie.

Marie-Anna Greyton nods towards the Professor and turns to offer Eliza her hand. Once the formalities are done she offers a smile at the Gryffindor team. “You guys’ll do fine, you’ve worked hard for this match, just like all the others,” she gives in a calm voice before she takes her position on the pitch. Her stance is that of someone ready to play the game.

Feeling remarkably dizzy, while stepping onto the field, Andy Carver clings to his broom. Today he does not care about its tousled looking tailtwigs. He positions himself next to Briony and glances over to her, while tying up his hair to a ponytail, so that they won’t bother him during the match. As acclimates slowly, the spectators seem to come out of reach. ‘You’re playing here. Don’t care about them. Don’t-care-about-them’ he says to himself under his breath and puts on his father’s old quidditch gloves. Finally he puts his head back and breathes in deeply, looking up to the sky.

Alexandra Leong titters nervously, bouncing on her toes, toying with the handle of her broom. She gulps as Eliza mentions her nerves, but nods in response, bobbing her head up and down vigorously. “I won’t let you down, Captain,” she blurts, and turns a bright red. She looks at the rest of her team, then, in a small voice, adds. “Good luck, everyone.”

These words to not soothe Briony‘s nerves, and she looks to her fellow second-year with a bit of a gulp, then readies her broom for when the whistle is given to fly up to the hoops. The only thing Briony can hope is that there is a large tussle for the quaffle and she won’t have to see it for a good long time.

“Yes… we’ll smite them.” Carrie Whittier repeats after Eldric, clutching her own broom firmly with her right hand and smiling back, for the briefest moment, at the sixth year boy. “We’ve trained a lot and I’m sure this will pay off eventually” she goes on, mostly for herself. She wonders how she’ll fare in this match and if she would be able to do justice to her team, but now is not really the time to doubt about such things, is it?

Eliza Marlow steps forward and shakes Marie-Anna’s hand firmly. “Good luck,” she said to the opposing captain, with a friendly smile. “Alright team! Let’s get started!” She mounts her own broom with an almost careless grace, like something she’s done a thousand times (and perhaps have), and could do in her sleep. There is a certain edge to her movements, however, as soon as she is on the broom. Poised and ready to take off, her grips her broom firmly, adjusting her grip until it is perfect, flexing her gloved hands.

Donovan Harrison looks up at the two teams and waits for them to be in the proper position as he takes the Quaffle out of the box into his hand. His wand is in his hand to be quickly used though. Once everyone was relatively settled despite the weather, he points to the box and has the Golden Snitch released, which flitters in place for a while and then goes zooming off into the snow. Following that the two bludgers were let go, which he dodges one while they go to create mayhem. Once that is done, he waves the box off the field and then tosses the Quaffle up into the air between the Chasers, letting them argue over it as he moves to his broom and kicks off to keep an eye on the game.

Charlie Linwood is not in the habit of mounting his broom until the referee has signaled the start of game. With a “Why do they always release them before we’re even airborne?” under his breath, Charlie pulls out his beater’s bat, mounts, and zooms upward. He watches as the other members of both teams begin to play. He looks, as always, a strange combination of menacing and ridiculous, holding the bat and moving rather quickly from here to there, but thin and all bundled up against the cold.

Marie-Anna Greyton makes her way up into the air, with Landon no ttoo far behind. Both beaters have bats in hand as they prepare to keep their teams from getting knocked out cold from the flying monsters that are bludgers.

Andy Carver sets up as the game is about to start. His toes seem to dig themselves into the ground to perform a proper kick off the ground. Since the quaffle is taken out of the box his eyes only know one direction. As it gets thrown into the air he shoots up into the air, trying to reach it earlier than the Hufflepuff chasers.

“I don’t know, but we’d better take off quickly” Carrie Whittier says to Charlie. Mounting her own broom, Carrie quickly takes off and takes her own position with the other Chasers of the Hufflepuff team, and starts manoeuvering so as to get closer to the red ball.

Marybeth Campbell moves with her team-within-a-team toward the quaffle as well, racing with the set of Gryffindor Chasers to gain hold of the ever-important red leather ball. “Oi!” she calls briefly, moving suddenly to the left, “Mind the wind!” Down, toward Andy, then, expression set rather seriously, for Marybeth.

Eldric Carver follows suit, and jumps on his own broom, bat firmly held in his right hand. He kicks off the ground, flying directly towards the nearest bludger, which is, however, still a bit too far away to be hit directly. Eldric mutters something under his breath as he presses his broom forward towards the heavy iron ball. The beginning of the game is the best moment to shoot a Bludger against the opponents and wreak confusion amid their ranks, he thinks.

Alexandra Leong kicks off hastily. Once in the air, her hair black hair flying, she lost some of her nerve, and began to fly a search pattern above the game, her eyes scanning the pitch for any sign of the snitch. So far… nothing. She does a fancy little turn, to change directions, more to calm her own nerves than anything.

Sebastian Praw decided to always keep an eye on Alexandra, as she is the opponent seeker and he really isn’t experienced. Of course he already caught a Snitch in his life, but this was a real Hogwarts quidditch match and not a fluffy training session. He whisks off some snowflakes from his broomstick, to make it more handy and looks up again. Where is Alexandra? Apparently gone. “Argh.” Sebastian curses himself and kicks off, following the Hufflepuff seeker and glimpsing out for the nasty bludger he has heard of.

Marie-Anna Greyton flies towards a bludger and takes a heavy swing at it, doing her best to aim for the Hufflepuff seeker. Meanwhile, Landon’s on his way towards the other bludger.

Seeing that he has a small lead in the race for the quaffle, Andy reaches out for it and plucks it out of the air. A bit surprised that he made it again to catch the first quaffle, he zooms upwards, trying to get out of the trajectory of the Hufflepuff chasers and starts looking for Josh and Gabe, who were flying next to him a second ago.

Rhian says, “And the two teams have come out. The captains, Eliza Marlow and Marie-Anna Greyton come to the center, getting last minute advice from Professor Harrison, shake hands and go to get their teams into position. Once everyone is settled, Professor Harrison releases first the Golden Snitch, good luck in this weather Seekers, then the Bludgers, which one attempts to hit Professor Harrison, and now the Quaffle is tossed into the air, with… Gryffindor taking it, Carver managing to get a hold of it. Greyton manages to get a hold of one of the bludgers and sends it off toward someone else.”

Too late for Landon. As he reaches the bludger, Eldric Carver swings his bat and sends it towards Andy, who seems to have caught the quaffle. This would give him something else to think about, he smirks.

Eliza Marlow launches herself with a firm kickoff, and within seconds she was bobbing about her goal posts. Her eyes narrow as she watches her team and the trying to keep an eye on the play, but so far, everything seems to be fine. “HUFFLEPUFFS! Communicate!” She yells out, sounding a bit short, although her tone of voice is usually like this during a game or a practice. Short and to the point, although not unkind or angry. Hopefully the team remembers that what “communicate” means in Eliza terms.

Charlie Linwood watches Eldric go for for the bludger and so heads in the direction of the other ball, rerouting when Marie-Anna hits it, with a bit of a glower. Actually, the ball is now closer and becomming rapidly more so. Quickly applying the breaks he glances very briefly around the pitch and barely has the time to swing and hit the bludger back toward Andy and the Gryffindor Chasers, with a bit of a shout.

Pushing her own broom forward, Carrie begins to chase Andy, trying to get the quaffle, exactly as her role requires. As she hears the sound of the bludgers drawing nearer, she breaks off the pursuit. It wouldn’t do much good to be targeted by the bludgers. Better leave them all for Andy to taste.

Marie-Anna Greyton flies upward a bit to have a better view of the players below, and the bludgers. Just as she’s about to head off towards the bludger Landon beats her to it. A swift hit of his bat sends the bludger in the general direction of the Hufflepuff end of the field.

For the very first time in her life, Alexandra felt complete at ease with her direct competition. After a few minutes of flying, she felt completely comfortable with her broom, and actually started enjoying the flight, although her muscles are still tense and she still overreacted to every sound or shout. She could tell that the Gryffindor seeker was following her, and that gave her an idea. Suddenly she zooms in the opposite direction as she was flying before, hoping to distract the other seeker and maybe lose him with a bit of fancy flying.

Marybeth Campbell frowns as Andy gains the quaffle, but follows Carrie out of the path of danger, swooping rather unexpectedly sideways (hopefully not into anybody else’s airspace). “Linwood! We’re down here too!” she calls in a surprisingly good-spirited tone, not that it’s likely to reach his ears. For all she knows, Eldric hit the ball in this direction, but it’s more fun to blame Charlie, for one reason or another.

Sebastian does not really search for the snitch, he’s more trying to keep track of Alexandra and avoiding bludgers. As Alexandra performs a hard turn, Sebastian wonders if she is trying to trick him, but then he just decides to stay behind or at least near her.

Andy hears the sounds of the bludger rushing towards him and hectically passes the quaffle to Gabriel, who caught up and swooped down to his left side. An adequate toss and Gabriel catches the quaffle. A grin escapes from Andy‘s lips and then he the bludger slams into his chest. “Ugh.” Andy moans and fights back onto his broom. Sitting on it again holding his side, he watches Gabriel engaging the Hufflepuff hoops.

Rhian says, “Ooo, the Hufflepuff chasers have to break off their attack following the Gryffindors due to the bludgers coming in from their own beaters, not a good thing. Leong seems to behave that she’s found the Snitch every now and then, but keeps changing direction, Praw following her almost like a lost puppy. Carver tosses the Quaffle to Goden, just before Carver is hit straight on by a bludger, that had to hurt. Carver tries to get air back into his lungs while the other two chasers head off toward the hoops.”

Marie-Anna Greyton looks towards Andy. “Come on, keep it going, Carver!” she shouts as she flies overhead, still, taking on the bludger that hit Andy. With an oomph she winds up and hits said bludger, intent on getting it towards the Hufflepuff chasers.

Charlie Linwood hit someone who isn’t a team member! Far from feeling bad that Andy took the quaffle to his stomach, he gives a bit of a whoop, grinning a bit (still obscured by his scarf) and waving about his bat. Andy isn’t Leong, who is the only person (or broom) he’s managed to hit yet (it was Louis’s fault, really!). As Marie hits the offending bludger toward his own chasers, however, Charlie urges his broom forward, eyebrows set. “Not if I can help it!”

Eliza Marlow watches calmly as a bludger heads towards her end of the field. The other bludger is hit towards the her chasesrs, which is a bit of a relief, as two quaffles might be a bit dangerous to deal with, if the Gryffindors get towards her end quickly enough. “Hufflepuff chasers! Watch for the bludgers!” she warns her team.

Alexandra Leong rights herself from her turn, just in time to see a glimpse of something glittering gold in the falling snow. For a moment the small Seeker shocked into a kind of trance, but the moment passes and a plan quickly forms. She still closer to the snitch than Sebastian, but not by much. Quickly she pulls into a sharp dive for about 10 feet, then she shoots straight up again (something she’s learned how to do from losing control of her broom way to many times), pulling up hard, then righting herself. She makes another swerve, then heads straight for the snitch, her body pressed against the handle of her broom as she urges it faster, everything around to beginning to blur as she gains speed.

Rhian says, “Gryffindor heads for the Hufflepuff hoops, but what is this? Leong has suddenly picked up speed. Has she actually spotted the Golden Snitch? And where is Praw?”

Marybeth Campbell pushes snow flakes away from her face, but it seems they’re coming down thicker than before, or maybe she’s just looking at them instead of through them. “What?” She urges her broom toward a blur of red that must be a Gryffindor chaser, as they haven’t been much far apart, and finds herself flying ridiculously close to Josh. “Ugh, you haven’t got the quaffle at all!” is her statement, as the whistle of a bludger reaches her ears and she leans sideways to increase the distance between herself, the ball, and Josh.

Sebastian suddenly sees Alexandra swooping down, but has no idea where the snitch could be. His new broom giving him a faint boost, Sebastian catches up to Alexandra slightly but still is a few yards behind her. Then he focusses something glimmering in front of the snow covered scene. It the snitch. Come on, broom. Sebastian leans forward to hide from the wind. The opponent’s seeker coming nearer in front of him, just in form of a fluttering robe.

Andy tries to catch up to Gabriel and Josh, who is also trying to maneuver into a good position. As Marybeth let’s go Josh, Gabriel tries to throw the quaffle to him, fooling the Hufflepuff chaser, who is heading for the other direction. Josh gets a hold of the quaffle, but then he gets entangled in his cape and drops the red ball. The three Gryffindor chasers seem to sigh simultaneously and discontentedly steer downwards to recover the quaffle.

Charlie Linwood finally notices the bludger heading toward Eliza and, figuring that the Chasers are, for starters, not in possession of the quaffle, and for seconds, much more able to avoid the hurting ball of metal, changes course. He isn’t about to let his Captain and Keeper have to deal with the bludger, even if it’s unlikely she’ll be his. Away, and then CRACK!, with an awful lot of force, he sends the bludger in the opposite direction, toward Gryffindor’s end of the field.

She’s close now. Only feet away, Alexandra raises one arm, reaching forwards, but she’s not close enough. She mutters to herself, pushing for her broom to go faster, and it obliges, although the increase in speed is only slight. With the golden ball so tantalizating close, she is aware of nothing else, not even the other seeker.

The race goes on and Sebastian is getting nearer inch by inch. He’s approaching a bit faster now, that he is right behind her, but there its still a long way, if he is going to overtake her. The Hufflepuff’s cloak whips into his face, but he won’t concede. Sebastian swerves to the left, as it seems to be a good moment and perceives, that Alexandra’s fingers are only inches away from the fluttering golden ball. He reaches out and tries to catch it with a single strike. He misses and tumbles, doing a awkward roll in the air and falling back immediately, losing several yards in a second.

Sebastian’s sudden appearance (and disappearance) startles Alexandra, and she nearly falters, but as she turns to check on the other seeker, her outstretched hand brushes against something fluttering. Instinctively, she closes her fist. A second later she is slowing down, and in a few moments she is stopped, right dead center of the pitch, looking a bit confused, her hand closed on something. She opens in hand a little, taking a peek, and suddenly she breaks starts to laugh. Finally, she raises her arm into the air, holding the snitch, now visible in her hand, it’s wings protruding from between her fingers. “I catch it!” she says intelligently.

Rhian says, “The Seekers are so close it seems in catching the Snitch, Praw makes a grab for it but fails in getting it, quickly loosing ground on Leong. Leong has stopped and… she has the Snitch! Hufflepuff wins! The final score is Hufflepuff 150, Gryffindor 0 as they failed to get a score before the Snitch was caught. That’s it for the game and lets all get back to the castle and warm up.”

Marie-Anna Greyton screeches to a halt as she hears the words from Alexandra. “Oy, good try guys,” she gives to her teammates as she looks around and offers a nod towars Alexandra. “Yeh did good,” with that she lets her broom make it’s way to the ground. Once having touched down she offers her congratulations to the Hufflepuff team before heading back to the castle.

Donovan Harrison gives a whistle as he sees that Alexandra has caught the Snitch. He flies up to her and nods. “Good job Miss Leong. I’ll take the snitch now. Go ahead and get cleaned up and celebrate with your House.” He also goes around and gathers up the bludgers and quaffle, putting them away as he also makes sure the pitch is cleared of players before he goes to get warm himself.

As is fairly usual, Professor Quintus Helit is at the Clearing before any of the students, though the precise amount of attention he pays to anyone who approaches – approximately none – is perhaps indicative of his having forgotten that he has a class on at all. On one side of the clearing is an aviary containing four greenish-black birds, rather akin to an underfed vulture in appearance, each of which is silent. The other side is home to a portable fence, enclosing four small dogs. Each of the dogs bears a rather close resemblance to a jack russell terrier – however, one of them is eating with every sign of enjoyment what appears to be part of a metal contraption, so perhaps it is not such a mundane creature. A small bench is set up in the centre, containing a few small bottles of some sort of patented magical potion and a handful of combs, as well as a jar containing a few tiny insect-like creatures. For his part, the Professor himself is rather distracted by watching the dog-like creatures – perhaps trying to decide if he should stop them from trying to eat metal.

Stepping into the clearing Louis gets a bit of a surprised look as he spots the dog eating… metal. “Err thats new…” He mutters as he takes a step back not knowing wether the animal can eat the fence that is holding it or not. “Right then… I’ll just stand here.”

Charlie Linwood comes up behind the Professor and looks over the fence at the doggish animals. Looking, for all the world, delighted, the boy kneels down to get a more level glance at them. “Professor Helit, do you suppose consuming metal is any good for them?” It would be a somewhat helpful statement were it not delivered in a very wry ‘and aren’t you the expert here?’ tone. Louis, for what it’s worth, is completely ignored.

Staring with a rather bored expression on her face, Nadia makes her way out to the clearing with a couple of other Slytherin girls at her sides. She doesn’t look hateful, or smug, or even haughty, just simply bored as she comes to a stop near Louis — he is her housemate, after all — but she doesn’t speak to him, instead turning to one of the girls at her side and whispering what looks to be rather rude statements to her friend.

“They eat just about everything they can get their teeth on,” Quintus replies, his tone monotonous and bored, “so unless you know a lot more about caring for magical creatures than your classwork lets on, I wouldn’t venture any opinions if I were you.” This is fairly rich coming from the Professor who was, in fact, just wondering if he should get them to stop it. In any case, he turns to the class as a few more students file in, and he taps a sheaf of papers in his arms. “As a whole, your homework has improved, but not up to the standard that I would usually expect from students your age. Please come and collect your papers as I call out your names.” And yes, he has taught them for a few months now, and still cannot determine who is who. As he offers the papers back, he provides encouraging pieces of advice. “Good work. It almost seems like you understand.” “Did you write this, or did your owl land in your ink and walk across the paper?” “Ah, someone with no sense of identity. How depressing. Please see the Nurse if you forget your name again.”

Taking his paper and looking it over Louis doesn’t seem very dissapointed so his grade probably isn’t awfull. Looking over now at the birds as if he is only just noticing them now. They probably don’t stand out as much when they aren’t eating mettal thats all.

Charlie Linwood opens his mouth to protest–some mixture of ‘I’ve been doing grand on my classwork’ and ‘Not up to the standards of students in their first year of the class who have only been taught by you?’ but shuts it before something potentiall stupid (see above) comes out. He takes his paper as his name is called and sulks off to stand by someone who isn’t Louis or Professor Helit, crossing his arms and looking for all intents and purposes like a really tall ten year old girl who isn’t getting her way.

Standing and striding up to the professor as her name is called, Nadia‘s face becomes more sullen and she turns on heel almost as soon as she has her paper in hand, not even bothering to look at the grade, let alone listen to the comments that the professor has gifted to her. Though, given the poor score on her essay, gifted would perhaps not be the right way to put it. She glances over at Louis, then at Charlie, almost as if trying to see their scores in comparison to her own. Surely the professor was being unfair to her.

Whether Quintus was actually being unfair to her – not entirely impossible – is uncertain, though it is definite that sexism plays a part in his teaching, particularly as he looks over at his class and eyes Charlie for a moment. “Mister Knowy, it pains me to see you acting like such a girl. Please.” As quickly as this remark is made, however, he is distracted by the actual class content, marching over to the aviary and gesturing to the birds within. “I suppose one of you can tell me what these birds are?” Grudgingly, he adds, “I’ll give you a hint. Their cries are considered unlucky, so I’ve put a silencing charm on them just in case any girls are superstitious.”

A chuckle comes from Louis as the Professor pretty well calls Charlie a girl. It takes him a momment to stop laughing and realise that class has started. Louis stares at the strange bird trying to place it but he apparently comes up blank as he says nothing and instead mutters to Nadia “Just looks like a skinny ruddy old owl to me.”

Charlie Linwood turns rather red, uncrosses his arms, and… straightens his shoulders, firmly plants his feet, and juts out his chin to look more ‘manly’. Right, well, perhaps the Professor had something of a point. Still, Louis gets a Grade A glare, “Don’t be stupid, Harper, they’re not skinny owls, they’re Augreys.” A roll of his eyes; at least Charlie has done some reading. A bit under his breath, “Though if the Professor was worried about girls and not himself he wouldn’t have said anything.” Someone’s in a sour mood. And a stupid mood, at that.

Nadia stifles a snicker as Louis says this, and she smirks ever so slightly at him, shooting an equal glare to Quintus at his comment about girls. “Who cares what it is, anyway,” she comments slyly to those around her. “It’s not like I should care anyway, being a girl and all. I would much rather be off tending to my hair.” The mussed state of her hair only adds to the comment as she crosses her arms, just looking sullenly at Quintus, expecting him to just give her the answer in this case. No, she can’t actually be bothered to read the book for this class.

Merely shrugging and nodding to Nadia, as if to say that he understands completely her lack of interest in his course due to the unfortunate matter of her gender, Quintus‘ mood seems to have improved by the fact that someone in the class knows what they’re talking about. “Precisely, Mister, uh, Knowy.” Just be thankful he’s redubbed Charlie ‘Mister Knowy’, not ‘Mister Girly’. “They’re Auguries. For a long time, their cries were thought to foretell the death of whoever heard it. However, in 1824, Gulliver Pokeby’s text ‘Why I Didn’t Die When The Augurey Cried’ proved this to be incorrect, ascertaining that the Augerey merely cries shortly before it rains. However, I do not wish to promote superstition in my course. And these other creatures,” he strides back towards them, gesturing to the metal-eating dogs, “Does anyone know what these are?”

Biting his lip Louis speaks up as they come to the dogs. “Are they Crups Professor?” He doesn’t want to really get much closer. “And what keeps them from eating the fence anyway?” Stupid question maybe but he really was whondering.

Charlie Linwood snorts and goes back to sulking, despite getting something right and no further insults. Cracking his back, he slips into listening as Louis answers the question, and sort of fades into the crowd of third years as class continues.

With a rather dramatic yawn, Nadia flips her hair over her shoulder. “Like I would know. Being a lowly girl and all.” What Nadia likely doesn’t realize is that being as she is, she plays into his sexism. But, ah, at thirteen, she doesn’t realize this, and really thinks herself terribly cleverfor being a bit of a snot, though by all rights, Nadia should know better than to talk back to an elder. This doesn’t stop her from examining her fingernails with interest, however, clearly ignoring the courswork.

“Correct,” Quintus replies, tapping at the fence with one hand. “They are, as.. this boy so rightly tells us, crups. And the fence is magically reinforced so they can’t eat it. They do, however, Miss Priss, you will soon get detention lowly girl or not if you don’t shut up, eat just about everything that is put in front of them.” He barely breaks in his sentence to reprimand the girl, and in fact delivers all of this in much the same tone. “Now, on this table we have your actual work for the day. In small groups, you will be given an Augurey or a Crup and you will need to, in the case of crups, comb this potion through their fur to kill the chizpurfles. In the case of the augureys, just making sure their feathers are thoroughly treated will be sufficient. Does everyone know what a chizpurfle is?”

Glanceing at Nadia and then again at the Professor Louis takes a step away as if lightning were about to strike the very spot he had been standing. When the Chizpurfles are mentioned Louis makes a bit of a face. Wether or not he knows what they are isn’t clear but the at least sound nasty.

“A magical creature,” Nadia Marshall-Wexler responds, but she does so more quietly. She doesn’t want a detention, after all, so she does stifle herself from further commenting. Slytherin Plan and all, she certainly doesn’t want detention with Professor Rathe. Instead of commenting further, she looks over to the table where their supplies are gathered, cringing a bit at having to comb the everything-eating creatures. The girl finds herself wondering, exactly, why she decided to take this course to begin with.

Sighing heavily as if the students are being ignorant on purpose, Quintus plucks the small jar containing the small insect-like creatures from the table and hands it to Nadia with the vague instruction to ‘pass it around’. It contains small parasites, about 1/20th of an inch in height, that look rather like tiny crabs with fangs. “These are chizpurfles. They infest the fur and feathers of magical creatures. Sometimes, they also gorge themselves on the magical remnants of a dirty cauldron or on a wand carelessly left where they might come across it. Usually, however, they stick to creatures. So, it is our job today to get rid of them. If it’s reassuring at all, auguries won’t hurt you, though they might beat their wings at you if you aren’t gentle, which can take some people by surprise. Crups are fiercely loyal to wizards, so it would take an awful lot of effort to get them riled, but PLEASE, no one try it.”

Louis Harper seems to relax a bit when the Prfofessor informs them that the Crups will not hurt them. “Should we wear our dragonhide gloves for this Professor? Is the potion harmfull?” Always one to make sure where potions are involved knowing his bad luck. Louis looks at the jar and shivers again. “I hate chizpurfles.”

“EW,” Nadia Marshall-Wexler responds rather loudly, quickly turning to hand the jar to her comrade next to her immediately, who hands it over to Louis in her own time. The girl stifles another yawn as Louis asks his question, almost acting as if she would much rather be sleeping than be in this class — which is probably true — or that she might not have been getting enough sleep otherwise, which also could be true.

“If your hands are that sissy,” Quintus intones, raising an eyebrow at Louis, “then you may wear gloves. But would I allow you to pour a potion onto a defenceless magical creature if it was harmful?” After a moment, he waves a hand vaguely and concedes, “Some wizards do have an allergic reaction to it, and their hands get covered in boils. If you would rather not take the risk, you may wear gloves. It is by no means a necessity, however. Usually, it only hurts chizpurfles and other parasites.” His glare turns to Nadia as she exclaims her disgust. “If you would rather not soil your nails, feel free to sit over there. However, you will have to spend a detention learning about crups in much more depth. With a very small spade.”

Content as ever in Care of Magical Creatures, and cheerful as ever in general, Katherine Nichols‘s good humor is nevertheless dimmed a little as she reaches out to take the jar of Chizpurfles – she wrinkles her nose at the tiny parasites, and quickly passes the jar on to her neighbor. Her smile returns, though, as she turns back to the pen of Crups, and her eyes light eagerly as she watches the little creatures climbing over each other, wagging their double tails.

Furrowing his brow at being called a sissy Louis dosn’t put on his gloves instead he is determined to show Professor Helit that he is a ‘real man’. Louis passes on the jar to the next student almost as soon as it is handed to him. “Disgusting things.”

“Excellent.” Quintus concludes, having officially decided that all his students must be ready for lack of a loud complaint. “Alright. You, can have a crup. You, can have an augurey. You, crup. You, augurey.” He splits the class up, waving those with crups towards the crup enclosure, and those with auguries over towards the aviary. “Alright, now, I’m going to let you into the aviary, one by one. Move slowly, so as not to frighten them, and seize them firmly but gently, so you don’t scare them. As I said, they won’t bite you, but I’ve seen people get a nasty scare as one of them tried to take flight while they were holding them.” He opens the cage door, allowing the students to step in one by one. “And the same goes for the crups, more or less. Go in and take one firmly, but don’t hurt it. They might try to run away, so just pet them until they calm down if they do.”

Stepping into the fenced area Louis is nearly tackled by an excited crup who begins licking his face. “Heh there friendly enough I guess.” Remarks Louis with a small laugh as he scratches the magical canine behind it’s ears. “Good boy” Louis praises as the crup finally sits.

Katherine‘s grin widens even more as she is sorted into the Crup group, and she bounces up from her seat to head over towards the fenced-in enclosure. While a few of her fellow students shrink back from the rambunctious, puppy-like creatures, Katherine eagerly reaches out to grab one. “Oh, Louis, you’re in this group too!” she says, giving her friend a grin as she scoops her squirming Crup into her chubby hands. “There you are!” she croons. “Good…er, girl,” Katherine decides, after a quick glance. The Hufflepuff girl’s smile bubbles over into a giggle as the Crup wriggles up to lick her face, and she tightens her arms around it, holding it firmly on her way back to her seat.

Standing and pretty much wading through a pack of exicited crups Louis takes a bit of the potion from the table and with a bit of hesitation puts some onto his hands before kneeling down and working the stuff into the fur of his new friend…. a large crup. “Well he seems to appriciate it. There really friendly huh Kitty?”

Struggling to keep a one-handed grasp on the Crup while reaching down with her other hand to scoop up a bottle of potion, Katherine still manages an enthusiastic nod to Louis that sends a few curls bouncing free of her braids. “Oh, yes! My Aunt Penelope has Crups – I wanted one of the puppies, but Mum wouldn’t let me since I’d be away at school.” The potion bottle clinks down onto the ground as Katherine kneels down, keeping the squirming Crup tightly clutched under one arm while she uncorks the bottle. “But I still play with them every time I go up to visit. They’re ever so friendly. Watch out for the tails, though – oh!” She cuts off mid-sentence as the Crup lurches forward to lick her face again, and breaks off into a giggle. “You stay put!” she admonishes the little creature, still laughing, as she starts to rub the potion into its fur.

Louis Harper chuckles softly as he continues rubbing the potion into the fur of the dog-like creature. “I’ve only ever seen crups once or twice really…..” Louis smiles and carefully works a bit more of the potion over the crup’s fur. “At least there not as big as horses. My father is a real horse nut.”

“There are combs on the table to fish the chizpurfles out after you’ve rubbed the potion through the fur,” Quintus notes, striding around and inspecting the crup group before wandering over to the augurey group, where one poor boy has just received the shock of his life as the augurey tried to flap him away. “What did I tell you? Grab them firmly but gently. For goodness sakes, don’t pull any of his feathers out! Serves you right if he flaps at you!” Then, he pauses, inspecting a small scratch on someone’s arm. “Oh, dear, his talons dug into you? It’s just a little scratch, it didn’t even draw blood.”

“Oh, horses are all right, I suppose,” Katherine replies with a friendly shrug. “I like Crups better, though.” She scratches her own Crup behind the ears, and it wags its tails enthusiastically in response, then wriggles over onto its back to present its belly to be scratched. Katherine obliges, but also takes advantage of this new position to get a little more potion into the Crup’s fur. “Too bad we can’t have them as pets here. Your dad must have lots of room, to have horses,” she comments, skipping back and forth between subjects as easily as she flips the Crup over to start combing through its fur.

“Oh sure.” Louis replies as he stands to get a comb from the table and kneeling again. “My father is strange though. He has an owl and his horses…. and he keeps garden gnomes in our flower bed.” Louis shrugs and carefully begins running the comb thorugh his crups fur who seems to have diceded now is the perfect time to take a bit of a nap.

“He keeps them?” Katherine repeats, her voice rising in astonishment. “On purpose, you mean? How can he ever get anything to grow?” Her Crup is anything but sleepy – once it has tired of having its belly scratched, it resumes squirming, doing its best to wriggle out of Katherine‘s grasp. Her chubby hands maintain their hold on both comb and creature, though, and she continues sifting the Chizpurfles out of its fur. “Ugh,” she mutters under her breath, watching the tiny parasites sprinkle onto the ground.

Whirling around as he hears a yelp, Quintus sighs and rolls his eyes. “It’s not trying to eat you. It just wants to play.” He informs a girl as a crup nips gently at her arm. “Just tell it no. Firmly.” He wanders around the groups again, inspecting everyone’s progress. “Well done, boy.” He informs Louis. “See, here, this one’s got the crup to go to sleep.” This being about as close to a proper compliment he would ever offer to a student, he nods to each of them in turn and even affects a more cheerful expression – or, at least, glares less. “Whenever you think you’ve managed to completely de-chizpurfle your creature, call me over and let me check. If you’ve done a good enough job, you may go.”

A shrug from Louis louis indicates that Katherine’s guess is as good as his. “I havn’t any idea why he keeps them. But he even has a house built for them out there and everything. Been that way as far back as I can remember.” Louis grimaces a bit too as he shakes dieing chizpurfles from the comb. Despite being called a sissy earlyer Louis smiles at the near compliment and begins running the combe again through his sleeping crup’s fur.

Judging by the pile of inert Chizpurfles on the ground and the increased happiness of the Crup, Katherine seems to have done a fairly good job of ridding her animal of its parasites. But she still searches diligently through its fur for any stragglers – and, not coincidentally, enables herself to play with the Crup for a few more minutes while she’s doing so. To Louis, Katherine gives one last look of surprise, and then just shrugs – the eternal strangeness of grownups is beyond her. Then she raises a chubby hand in the air, continuing to hold her Crup firmly with her other hand. “Professor? I think I’m done.”

Though rather distracted at first with another student, who seems to be insisting that his chizpurfles are immune, Quintus eventually walks off on this poor lad mid-sentence, and nods to Katherine, inspecting her crup carefully. “Passable.” He finally declares – yes, her crup is completely free of any parasites and is looking well-brushed and happy to boot. “For a girl.” He offers as an addendum after a moment, before nodding to her and walking off to deal with some other student, without waiting for any sort of response.

An indignant squeak is Katherine‘s only response, and she sits for a moment with her mouth open, staring at Quintus’s back as he walks away. “For a girl!” she repeats. She tosses her head with a sniff, and lifts the Crup to cuddle it up to her chin, as if it were the one who needed comforting, as her plump face settles into an unhappy frown.

Louis Harper bites his lower lip checking carefully all over the sleeping crup and no long seeing any more chizprufles he raises his hand as well. “Professor I think I got them all.” Louis smiles a little giving the sleeping crup an affectionate scratch. Louis sighs a little heairng the ‘For a girl’ comment and shrugs to Katherine.

Turning on his heel and approaching Louis and Kitty again, Quintus raises an eyebrow at the girl without a word to Louis. “Feel free to leave, Miss. Any time.” He then turns his attentions to study Louis’ crup, declaring it to be, “Satisfactory. You too may leave.” Another sweeping glance over the rest of his students, and he offers, “Alright. Please return your creatures to wherever they belong, either the aviary or the enclosure. No homework this time. Class dismissed.”

Louis Harper gives his crup one final scratch and puts the potion and comb back where they belong. “Well I guess that’s it…. not so hard actually. Louis shrugs and heads out of the fenced in area. “Cmon Kitty, I think Professor Helit will notice if any crups come up missing.” Louis gives the girl a bit of a grin and turns to head to his next class smelling an awfull lot like a kennel.

Still hugging her Crup to her with protective tightness and a deep frown, Katherine brings the little animal reluctantly back to its enclosure. Gently, she sets it down, brightening a little in response to the enthusiastic lick that it gives her, and scratching it one last time behind the ears in return. Then, slowly, she lets it go. The Crup scampers cheerfully off to rejoin its friends, and Katherine rises to join Louis on the way back to the castle.

A long, meandering carpet (dry and hooded) of red velvet leads from the main entrance of the castle toward a surprisingly small, off-white carnival tent that has been erected upon the front lawn. Though it looks hardly large enough for one person to stand in from the outside, the inside of the tent is amazingly spacious. Nearly as big as the qudditch pitch, well-lit, and lavishly decorated in appealing shades of green and cream, the inside of the tent is pleasantly warm, and the grass and soil underfoot is solid and dry despite what ever the weather might be outside.

The room has been divided in to four nearly equal quarters, each meant to serve a different purpose. The southeast corner of the pavilion has been divided off in to several large, round tables each flanked by a half-dozen chairs and cloaked by off-white tablecloths. A large centerpiece of summer lilies decorates each table, and there is a small package of every-flavor beans at each place-sitting. The southwest corner is also filled with tables, but these are much longer. Almost as if the house tables from the great hall had been brought out on to the lawn, and decorated with similar accents to the more intimate tables east of them, these long tables have no chairs. Instead, they’re laden down with food. Large platters of finger foods spread across each table, in the form of crackers, cheeses, pocket breads and delicatessen meats of exotic varieties, a feast designed to be consumed without the benefit of utensils. The deserts are likewise finger-friendly, consisting of brownies, biscuits, and tarts. Disposable plates and napkins are provided in plenty, as are bins for rubbish, and at each end of each serving table is a large bowl of quick-clean potion and an ever-dry towel for proper hand washing.

The northeast quarter of the ten has been given to a large, open space for dancing, and an a small orchestra of enchanted, floating instruments that play a variety of cheery tunes without the benefit anyone holding them. The northwest quarter is filled with a small brevy of carnival-style games, each manned by a witch or wizard from the village of Hogsmeade. Small trinkets are available from a games that cost a knut or two (“toss the ring on a butterbeer bottle”, or the “dunk the Gringotts goblin” booth), while larger prizes may be won from games that cost up to a sickle (“arm wrestle a security troll”, or the “unstick the ever-sticking charm” booth). As promised, there are is a booth being run where students may pay two knuts to have the chance and throw confiscated footware through a vanishing hoop. Two well-trained security trolls and two Gringotts goblins stand at the entrance of the tent to ensure that everyone is blissfully barefoot.

Perhaps befitting the Minister’s son, Evan Geroff walks in, black robes, light catching and richly decorated, showing off his tall figure. On his arm is Olivia Baxtor, and his gaze moves between her and the social set-up before him, as he both admires the event and continues a conversation with her. “They said they would be confisticating any shoes worn.. I suppose one of the professors may be watching, or perhaps they’ve got a charm..” “Look at this! They’ve outdone themselves. And it’s lovely weather.” His final comment for the moment comes as he points, with his free hand and a smile, toward the instruments. “Do you think they take requests?”

Melvina Prichard strolls in to the tent with a fairly amused smirk playing across her lips. Her emerald robes shimmering, her wide-brimmed hat resting cock-eyed upon her head, laying somewhat absently against her tightly-bound, silver bun. “Well, yes, let’s see this off then, shall we?” She doesn’t make it more than a few steps inside, however, before one of the goblins at door steps in front of her. Lifting one claw-heavy fist to cover his mouth, the goblin clears his throat in a suggestive manner before glancing down at Melvina‘s feet. Upon which her boots still reside. “Oh, silly me,” she chides herself, with a grin. “Rule are rules, madam,” the goblin responds, motioning for the security troll to offer the headmistress an arm to lean on as she kicks her shoes off. “Of course, dear. Of course. There you go.” And the goblin nods, with a fangy grin, collecting up Melvina‘s boots and placing them in the box for the vanishing hoop. “Perhaps we should charge extra for the honor of vanishing the headmistress’ boots,” the goblin muses.

Saphia Bona is one of the first to attend, walking alongside Clavicle Gravely with a cheerful smile on her face, although like many children in these sorts of events, they walk together but none the less apart. She chats with him happily about the event, but there’s still little change from the sight of them walking down a school corridor other than the fact that both of them are wearing much fancier robes. And no shoes. As Saphia enters the tent, she becomes impossibly giggly, having never seen this sort of magic before. Oh, she’d read about it, of course, but never seen it. “Oh… oh my. Clavicle, this is amazing!”

Stepping out to the affair wide eyed and the most dressed up he has ever been in his short life Louis holds his walking can under one arm as he steps onto the front lawn in his bare feet. “Brilliant job they have done with the place Alex, don’t you think?” He comments to Alexandra.

“Oh, I don’t know. I hope so; perhaps we’ll get a good selection of music.” Olivia giggles a bit, the festive appearance of the front lawn brightening her spirits and making her forget that she is even barefoot. “When do you think we’ll be able to start tossing shoes? I do hope I’ll be able to get someone’s that I know. Wouldn’t that be funny?” She laughs a bit again and looks all around here, finding that there is almost too much to look at all at once.

Lenore Pantall wanders in, rather alone and at a sort of gait that would indicate that it is entirely possible that she has wandered here by accident – as she approaches the tent, she lets out a loud shriek as one of the trolls grabs her arm and points, wordlessly, to her dainty white boots. She removes them silently, offering only a terrified whimper, and allows one of the goblins to take them over to the vanishing hoop. Under her breath, she murmurs, “They were expensive shoes!” before wandering over to one of the tables, where she half-conceals herself from the crowd. See, this is why she doesn’t like socials.

Briony Wexler strides in on Albert’s arm, looking quite proud of herself. Briony had secured an ‘older man’ as her date to the Social. She glances aroud at all the others in the room, examining the various people’s dressrobes, trying to figure whether hers are better or theirs. Surely hers would be considered better; after all, her mother had made them! The girl beams quite prettily as the two of them stride in, saying very little for the time being, taking in the atmosphere.

“You did that on purpose,” Riley accuses Melvina, his arms folded across his chest in a decidedly annoyed sort of way. He doesn’t keep his arms folded for long, however, as the motion pushes the ungodly ruffle decorating his chest in to his face in a distasteful way. He doesn’t bother with waiting for her response, however, instead frogmarching toward the round sitting tables. His cheeks already red from embaressment.

Clavicle Gravely walks along beside Saphia and nods a bit. “It is at that.” he chuckles. “Watch the ring toss, half those rings have bouncing charms on them.” he knows the tricks of a carnival. Clavicle is getting too tall for his age, taller then some teachers, he’s an ‘early grower’. But his robe is an alteration of his fromal spidery robe before. As he walks past the Mummy comes out of the Pyramid and waves at a goblin. The wolves raise their necks to howl as a stittched moon rrises over the pyramid. Druids pause their harvest rite to wave and smile carefully stitched smiles. And skeletons crowd at the catacomb entrance to curiously stare out at the people. At his throat the Skeleton tatoo pops up to look around…and raises it’s tophat to anyone passing by. But the boy, or rather, young man himself seems more focused on his date and their surroundings. “Want to try to dunk a gringotts man? May be your only chance.” he offers with a grin

Alexandra Leong nods as she enters the fray with Louis Harper, looking pretty in her pink dress and more feminine that she’s ever looked at school. She has her hand on Louis’s arm, looking a bit nervous. “Absolutely brilliant, Louis,” she agrees. Wiggling her toes as she steps on the lush lawn, Alexandra looks like she would much rather be running around, rolling on the grass, and making daisy chains than being all dressed up.

Stepping just as lightly and easily in bare feet as she does in shoes – perhaps more so, even – Eliza Marlowe lopes into the tent. One hand rests lightly on the arm of Geoffrey Ruzbin, a sixth-year Ravenclaw whose height just barely exceeds that of the lanky Head Girl, and whose black dress robes are impeccably crisp and well-tailored. “Niiice,” Eliza murmurs as she looks around the transformed lawn, a slow, appreciative grin spreading across her face. Her hand slips away from her escort’s arm – she hadn’t been holding on that tightly anyway – and Eliza turns to survey the crowd, easily looking over the tops of most of her fellow students’ heads. Geoffrey, a little confused but not offended by Eliza‘s behavior, simply follows along behind…pausing to steal a quick glance around the tent to see who has noticed that he is escorting the Head Girl. Nobody seems to notice except Caroline Kelsey, a sixth-year Hufflepuff, who shoots Geoffrey and Eliza a venomous look before turning pointedly away. Eliza continues on into the tent, saying, “Good day, ma’am,” and dipping her head in a quick bow to the headmistress as she edges around Melvina – the Head Girl is already safely barefoot and cleared to enter.

“Um, I guess it’s time to go in,” Gabriel says to Felicity as the pair makes their way across the front lawn. “It looks nice, doesn’t it? I mean it must have taken a lot of effort.” Gabriel must truly be nervous if he is commenting on decorations. But, Gabe was… Gabe was escorting a girl! Even though he’s spent so much time in feminine company, this was very nerve-wracking. How could he keep the small-talk up? Finally catching a glimpse of Briony with Albert, Gabriel looks to Felicity. “Want to… go talk to Briony?”

Martin Foster has never been comfortable in his black dress robes, but for once in his life he has a set that fits properly. Around his neck is a green tie that matches the Head Boy’s eye colour. Cheeks slightly reddened, Martin sideglances Marie-Anna Greyton–who is on his arm. “Uh… nice… dress… it’s–er–very nice…” he finally comments as his cheeks redden further. The two had met earlier, but he’d been relatively silent since their initial greeting as he hasn’t exactly been comfortable with Marie lately. “… you look very nice today.” Angelina wouldn’t mind him saying that about another girl, would she? His eyes narrow at the security goblins. “Great,” he mutters to himself.

“We’ll have to try later on. Do you have a favorite song to dance to?” Evan‘s attention shifts from the enchanted instruments over toward the games, examining each that he can see from where he is. “Likely as soon as they collect some.. do you think they will get many? I wouldn’t have, after being warned that they’d vanish.” Assuming she doesn’t object, however, he first steers toward the corner with the tables.. perhaps she’d like somewhere to put the flowers down, and they can always claim seats for later that way.

Clementine Duncan arrives in her hideous set of new dress robes, still quite tall even without the additional height of shoes. Her arm is linked with her date’s, a boy who in her opinion is a particularly ugly third year who happened to be taller then her… and happened to be the only person to ask her to go. His horrid looks do make her look a little better, though. The Ravenclaw does his best to try and coax at least a smile out of Clem, but the most she allows is a forced smirk to his see

Marie-Anna Greyton offers a little bit of a hint of a smile towards Martin. “Thank you,” is given in a polite tone to the Head Boy. “You like nice as well,” she states as she looks about the crowded area, brushing a ringlet to the side of her face as she does so. “Who would have thought there’d be so many people on the lawn at one time,” Marie chuckles with this.

Walking into the small tent slowly, and alone, Aisling O‘Cormac is amazed to find just how much bigger it is on the inside than on the outside. Taking in her surroundings slowly, gasping as she sees the self-playing instruments, she appears to be looking for someone. Spotting Lenore, trying to hide herself away, Aisling heads for her, navigating her way through the growing crowd. Going past the security goblin and troll, she gives a small nod, but that’s about it for her communication right now. Reaching Lenore eventually, she says, “Isn’t it impressive?”

Felicity Wexler frowns slightly at that, as Gabriel’s eyes dart across the room toward Briony. Her own following briefly, before exhaling a small huff and rather purposefully moving to slink her arm about her date’s, leaning close to him. “She seems fine on her own. Well, not on her own, I suppose, but fine never the less. Let’s go take a look at the games, hmn?”

“Oh, Gertrude and Helen and I used to pretend we were princesses and dance to mum’s — er — ah — well, the music thingy, and I heartily enjoyed that. I haven’t had much occasion to dance much since, though,” Olivia admits, glancing at the still empty dance floor momentarily. “Oh, perhaps we should sit here. It’s nice and close to the band, but we won’t have to worry about getting trod over as if we were in the middle there. What do you think?” She glances to the seats at the very outer edge and then looks to Evan.

Marching, chin up, into the tent, a small smirk plays on Suki‘s lips as she lazily places her arm around that of Shawn Astor, a seventh-year Slytherin with a skull so thick it’s surprising he remembers to breathe (though, he is heart-stoppingly good looking. But isn’t that to be expected of Suki?) The same could likely be said about Marshall Allyn, who follows Tallis Carter with a very vacant expression. “Tallis, darling,” Suki says, turning around. “You’re looking very nice today,” the girl says with a flourish. Smirking, Suki glances meaningfully down to her shod feet. “I knew we could get past those stupid trolls. No problem.” With a light laugh, Suki takes Shawn in the direction of the refreshments.

Lenore Pantall looks up at Aisling in slight alarm, then noiselessly shakes her head, waving a vague hand to indicate that as impressive as it may be, it does nothing to help her shyness. After a moment, she lowers her voice to barely audible, especially over the noise of the crowd – Aisling had better be able to lipread – and offers, “I came. Are you happy?”

“But why would I ever want to dunk a Gringotts goblin?” Saphia asks Clavicle, wide eyed. This kind of humor not only doesn’t appeal to her, she flat out fails to understand the humor in it. “Personally, I’m more interested in that one!” Saphia points to the ‘unsticking the ever-sticking charm’ booth, watching a bulky Gryffindor sixth year trying futilely to tug the decorative bar from its pole. “Look at them all, all clutching their arms. They think it’s a test of strength!” She puts her hand to her chin and soon is in classic puzzle-solving mode.

Adorned in his black dress robes (that he appears to be outgrowing slightly), Rafe DeWitt walks onto the lawn with Kelly Pantall on his arm. He peers out at the group with scrutiny and wrinkles his nose. “It smells like feet,” he comments to Kelly. And then he adds, “Your hair is very curly. Again.” He shrugs and approaches the goblins–shuffling his feet all the while. “I think your sister is here.” And then he glances around further, “I think my sister is here. Now’s your chance…”

Melvina Prichard passes her grandson an amused sort of look, one that hardly seems bothered by his accusation, before moving toward the band of floating self-playing instruments. Her expression terribly impressed. Making small fists with her toes in the grass, she watches amusedly as the hovering tuba belts out a fairly happy sounding blat almost as if to greet her.

Standing at the outer edge of the tables, Bonnie watches as the students file in, most of whom she is — thankfully — still taller than. “Afternoon, Melvina,” the Divination professor calls to the Headmistress as she glances around at the ever-filling lawn. “I should say this is proving to be very entertaining, don’t you think?” She laughs a bit as several students shriek as their shoes disappear. “Brilliant,” she whispers, her laugh subsiding a bit.

“Oh, okay,” Gabriel says, as he seems to brighten after this registers. Yes, games. That would be a good way to ease his nerves. With the girl latched to his arm, Gabriel smiles as he leads them to the aforementioned booth. “I think I could do this!” Gabe exclaims, pointing to the ring toss. Digging around in his pockets, Gabe pays for two games. The idea of winning a prize and then giving it to Felicity hasn’t occurred to him. “Good luck!” he says, handing her three rings and keeping three for himself.

Clavicle Gravely grins. “We’d need Guinevere’s guile, or acham’s razor for it. My wand is in my bunk. I didn’t think we’d need it. Still, if we could find a fulcrum….” he shrugs as he walks that way towards the booth… “I wo0nder if anyone has some oil?” he chuckles “I still feel a bit odd, dancing in the wrong field.” he chuckles. “Was kind of nice.” he waves when he hears Riley’s growl. “I think he’s related to a bear.” he says in a low whispered aside to Saphia.

“Thank you Marie,” Martin states with his lips curled into a forced smile. “I’m sure it will be an experience.” As the pair approaches the goblin, Martin discards his shoes merely by slipping them off. Then he bends down to the ground to assist Marie with hers. “Allow me…” His cheeks redden again.

Andy Carver strolls in, accompanied by Nellie Caldwell. Feeling a bit uncomfortable as they step into the overwhelming atmosphere, Andy quickly points to his bare feet, to please the goblin door steward. Nellie has been doing the talking, feeding him with the latest rumours. As Andy notices Felicity and Gabriel, who are walking over to the games he suddenly steers his company towards the other end of the room.

As Melvina approaches the self-playing instruments and the tuba bleats out a jazzy solo (in stark contrast to the classical music they’re playing normally) a wand flicks back into its pocket, and Darius Dwight sidles up to the headmistress, his everpresent grin in place, “I told it to do that,” he smiles. “How are you handling your new position, headmistress?”

Riley Markham passes a quiet glance toward Saphia and Clavicle as the come in, looking somewhat forlorn as he flops down in a chair and exhales a loud sort of sigh. Almost absently pulling his scarred foot up on to his opposite knee so he can pluck the pieces of grass that had gotten caught in the jagged edges.

“My chance? To do what? Break her fingers?” Kelly offers in quiet response to Rafe’s remark, wrinkling her nose distastefully and peering around, trying to find either indicated sister. “I don’t want to break anyone’s fingers in front of the Headmistress. She’s already caught me fighting once this year, I don’t think she’d accept ‘it’s her fault for letting me do it’ as an excuse.” The remark about the curliness of her curls is entirely ignored, except for a faint pink blush that colours her cheeks, and an amused shake of her head so her curls bounce. All in all, though, she seems entirely cheerful and happy to be there, if a little nervous.

Evan Geroff nods in agreement to Olivia, going so far as to rest his hand on the back of a chair. “Looks like a perfect spot. And not too far from anything, if we want to rest.” He pulls the chair partway from the table, looking at her – presumably offering it to her. “It doesn’t look like anyone is dancing yet; shall we stop here for a while, or take a look at the food, or the games perhaps?” And socialize, but there are people filtering into whatever direction they might choose.

Marie-Anna Greyton nods a little, though her own shoes for this particular appearance are nothing more than simple soft-soled shoes to match her outfit, on the chance that she forgot to remove them. “Thank you, Martin,” she states, blushing ever so slightly at this.

Still in the queue leading the students to the tent where the event occurs, David stands tall and upright , bearing a large smile as he looks at Katherine Nichols, the girl who invited him to the social. “Very impressive” he says to her, as they get nearer to the tent and begin to catch glimpses of what the afternoon is going to offer. David’s voice is barely audible amid the “Oooh!” and “Aahh” voiced by the other students discovering the setting of the event. “Look! There are games as well!” he says, getting increasingly excited as they get nearer to the tent. David is happy to be here, but feared a little that the event would only involve dancing…

Karina Sedgewick enters with Charles Harper, looking nice in her velvet dress. She is smiling an absolutely brilliant smile, full of unbridled happiness such as never seen on her face, at least not by this lot. Perhaps Charles is the reason, but either way, the couple looks surprisingly well matched. As the walk pass the security trolls, the Potions teacher takes a look at her bare feet. “I’m glad we remembered to put away our shoes at the Hogwarts gate, Charles,” she says to her date, laughing. “Even an Auror might have problems with our security measures…”

Aisling O‘Cormac nods somewhat cluelessly. “Yes.” she says. “Look at all these people! I mean, there’s the Head Boy, and over there the Head Girl, and, well, so many people I don’t even remember seeing from the Sorting! And they almost all have impressive dress robes, and there has to be some interesting things that will happen, and we’ll be here to see them!” Despite her apparent lack of clue towards Lenore’s discomfort, the girl is beginning to show some herself, babbling away and gripping her left plait tightly. One of the things that she neglects to mention, of course, is how out of place she feels, in her worn school robes rather than fancy new – or even old – dressrobes.

Felicity Wexler blinks as she’s handed the rings, though she can’t help but giggle. Obviously, the whole courting thing was relatively knew to Gabriel, and clearly he’d not read the many volumes of trashy, French romance that she had studied to be her guidebook on this, her maiden voyage in to her teenage years. Still, she adored a challenge, and she wouldn’t be put to anything less than the test. Giving a small grin, she turns and gives one of the rings a hurl. It takes a nice, long sail far right, however, causing her to give a terribly cute little pout.

Tale flies into sight, dropping a message to Martin Foster, then lifts up into the air and flies away.

Lenore Pantall is also wearing her school robes, which she indicates to Aisling with a wave of her hand, her pale cheeks colouring as she inspects each of the indicated people in turn. The fact that she slips behind Aisling, using the poor Hufflepuff girl as a human shield, as she registers the approach of Rafe and Kelly must be entirely coincidental. What reason would she have for hiding from them? Tapping the other girl’s shoulder to attract her attention, she offers the low murmur, “But what if the interesting things are bad and we all die?” There is a certain urgency to her voice, as if she is convinced that this will happen.

“Why thank you, Suki,” Tallis chimes in her formal party voice. “Marshall, assist me with my shoes,” she instructs authoritatively as she shoots a glare at the Goblin. The large seventh year does as he’s told and bends down, assisting his date. “Come Marshall, follow Suki.” Examining her best friend, she offers her a wicked smile, “Don’t you scandalous in red, my darling!” She pokes Marshall in the gut, “Tell Suki how beautiful she looks!” “Uh…?” Shaking her head and rolling her eyes in a slight huff, Tallis responds, “Never mind! Just go over there and talk to Shawn.” She pushes him towards Suki’s date.

Charles Harper chuckles softly with Karina on his arm dressed to the literal nines in his midnight blue dress robes lined with white fringes. A bit old fashioned but looking surprisingly well on the Auror. “That I would, I don’t believe I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to face one just yet luckily.” He says as he gives to Trolls a friendly nod. He takes a moment to scan the crowd and spots his son with a girl. “Ah there is Louis… who is that he is with there?”

Looking around for her friends, Briony spots Gabriel and Felicity over at the games and frowns a bit. Well, if they weren’t going to be sociable, why should she? She strides over to where Marie-Anna is standing with her date. “Hi, Marie-Anna,” the girl greets the prefect cheerfully. “Look, this is Albert. He’s a fourth-year, and he’s my date.” The girl grins and poses cutely with Albert, who still seems rather distracted. “Maybe we should go play games,” she states plainly, looking at the games, and she then drags Albert over there, intending to play the game next to where Gabe and Felicity were. She’d show them how happy she was to be there.

“Oh, Darius, dear!” Melvina exclaims, turning so that she can look toward the Wizo-Music Professor past her shoulder and afford him a warm smile. “Quite well. Quite well, indeed. And I could ask the same you, dear! How are you settling in? And these instruments, brilliant–I couldn’t have done better myself. Or nearly as well, for that matter. Quite fine, I say.”

“Yes! She’s right there. You could so break her fingers,” Rafe strokes his chin. “You’re tougher than her, anyways.” He takes off his shoes and then shrugs. “I guess you’re right, probably not good to make her mad. Don’t pet the burning bear–that’s what Mum always says. Oh… wait, no it’s always pet the burning bear?” After considering this, he takes off his shoes. “The dress is very… shiny.”

Every ruffle on Katherine Nichols‘s dress flutters as she bounces excitedly into the tent at her friend’s side. “Oh, look!” she giggles, reaching back to tug David along after her. “Yes, let’s try the games! Do you think we could dunk one of the goblins?” One primly gloved hand reaches out to snatch up a handful of Bertie Bott’s Beans as she passes a table. “Ooh, there’s Alex and Louis! Let’s see if they want to play, too! Oooh, hullo, Clem! Hullo Briony – ooh, I like your dress!” Bouncing from friend to friend on her way across the tent, Katherine is pinker and giddier by the moment.

Chuckling as Felicity’s ring misses, Gabriel shakes his head, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder as she pouts. “No, no, ‘City! You have to follow through on your throws! See, watch,” he says, tossing one ring. The ring makes it around the neck of a bottle–but barely. “I’ll help you,” he offers, making to take her hand and guide her next shot.

“Oh!” Clementine puts on a happy face as Rafe and Kelly arrive – just in case the two’s evening could be made better through her misery, as misery tends to have that effect on little monsters like them. Patting her date’s chest excitedly, she squeaks, “Let’s go play a game!” Grinning with new life, the puff instinctively walks on the balls of her feet as she takes him by the hand and tugs him towards the ‘Dunk the Gringotts Goblin’ booth.. not because it will be fun.. but because it will look like it’s fun, she wagers. Waving her free hand cheerfully to Kitty, she chimes, “We’re going to go play a game, too! C’mon!” She doesn’t seem to be planning on waiting for anyone to come along, though.

Darius Dwight smiles broadly and waves toward them proudly. “These are a very simple Wizo-Music charm… I think they have about ten classical pieces in them. Time consuming, though, I had to go through and play those ten pieces for each instrument. You owe me some overtime,” He winks to her, clearly jesting. “I’m eager to see how the third year students develop, to be honest. It will be wonderful to see them develop their talent, and then next year, learn some actual Wizo-Music…”

Clavicle Gravely stops Saphia and looks at Riley. “Would you stop acting like that and come on…this thing won’t be any fun without you.” he waves Riley over. “Come on.. let’s go around and see what there is to be seen.” he grins at Riley. “Come on.”

Louis Harper nods to a few of his housemates who have shown up and to Martin though briefly not to disturb the Head Boy and Marie-Anna. Turning back to Alex, Louis bites his lower lip just a bit nervously. “Would you like to dance or something?” The shaking in Louis‘s voice says it all. He’s never danced a day in his life.

“Alexandra Leong, one of his close friends, I do think,” Karina Sedgewick answers Charles. “One of my Hufflepuffs, actually. I thought I might have mentioned her?” Karina doesn’t seem to be paying too much attention to Charles’s interest in his son’s social affairs, dismissing it as something that Charles already knew. “Can I fetch you a drink?” she asks her date, instead of continuing with the topic of Louis, “I suppose I am officially the host here?”

“I think I’d like to play some games,” Olivia tells him and sets her bouquet down on her seat. “Maybe the dunk the goblin game, if I won’t get wet. I don’t want to get my dressrobes wet.” She nods and starts slowly walking over there, trying not to rub too closely up against anyone. “Evan? Where are you?” she calls above the crowd, unable to see her friend any longer as she still tries to make her way through the crowd. So many people!

Kassandra Verkooyen floats into the pavilion after she made Richard Terry linking his arm with hers. “Just for the entrance.” she assured with a smile. “It makes a good impression.” The goblin frowns as they pass without regarding him since the whole scene inside seems to attract both of them like a huge magnet. “Come. Let us meet Clavicle and Saphia, they are just over there where Riley is sitting and… cleaning his feet?”

“You’re welcome,” Martin flushes. The owl that delivers a message to Martin increases the redness in Martin‘s cheeks. Momentarily he smiles broadly, but then a frown begins to form on his face. He fights the uncomfortable frown that wants to take over his face. The entire situation is uncomfortable for him. Biting his lower lip, he offers Marie the most charming smile he can muster, but he can’t think of anything to say. Finally he resorts to scraping the bottom of the barrel. “How does your quidditch team look?” He offers Louis a weak smile and nod in greeting.

For whatever reason, Kelly does not look eager to leap on the girl and break her fingers, instead turning to Rafe with a slightly confused expression. “But the Headmistress is right there, and Morganna will get all angry,” not that anyone could really blame her, “and will kick up a fuss and then the Headmistress will want to know what happened and then I’ll get in even more trouble. No, no, if I’m going to break her fingers, I’m not going to do it tonight. Too many Professors around. And the Headmistress.” That logic applied, she seems to get rather distracted by Clementine as she notices her, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. “Is she avoiding me?” She asks quietly, peering after the girl vaguely. “I bet Clementine’s avoiding me.”

Aisling O‘Cormac, being the most subtle of girls as she is, bursts out laughing. “Die!” she splutters, before resuming a splinter of her calmness. “What could possibly happen that would result in us all dying?” she queries amusedly, beaming at Lenore. Perhaps a paranoia is the seat of her problems?

“Yes… yes of course. I remember now.” Charles turns his attention away from his son and back to Karina with a smile. “I do believe you are and yes I would love a drink!” Charles seems very good humoured today and its obviously all because of Karina. “A spot of Butterbeer might…. Oh! Or pumpkin juice if its being served. I haven’t had any in years.”

“Oh, well, I can’t really dance,” Alexandra says truthfully. “But, well, maybe we could… oh look, Kitty and David!” She waves at Kitty and David with obvious relief. “Maybe we can go and play the games? I heard you can dunk goblins, or something.” The small Hufflepuff stands on her tiptoes in an attempt to take a closer peek at the games.

Felicity Wexler blushes, brightly, as Gabriel moves to take her hand. She doesn’t resist, however. Quiet the contrary, in fact. Bowing her head slightly in a demure, slightly embarrassed sort of way, she allows Gabriel to guide her next throw. One which bounces over the butterbeer bottles, but comes much closer. “I almost got it that time!” She chirps, happily.

Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles a little uncomfortable chuckle before responding to the barrel scraping. “Rather good, actually, I’m quite pleased, so far,” is offered as she looks around and grins towards Briony. “Oh, there’s Kelly, I told her she’d look lovely,” is stated towards Martin, indeed, she too is barrel scraping.

“And get us some punch,” Suki calls over to the two bumbling fools, Shawn and Marshall. Now that those two oafs were out of their way (but wouldn’t they look nice in the photographs?), Suki crosses her arms. “Some frightening hideous dresses I’m seeing here, Tallis,” comments Suki as she scans the crowd. Of course, she glazes over the many spectacular dresses to point at one in particular, giggling. And then, Suki sees Katherine. Covering her mouth and laughing quite openly, Suki leans toward Tallis. “Looks like a pink marshmallow was let out of its packaging,” she says, taking her friend’s hand, hoping to guide them over to the girl.

Even though Nate Hunter was asked to the social by a girl, he refused to go with anyone, but he has conformed enough to dress up in his classic black dress robes. Why have a date when you can go stag? The third year has shown up without shoes on (yes, he walked through the castle without his shoes on), passes through security quickly, and walks up to Gabriel Goden. He offers his friend a lopsided smile, “Havin’ fun yet?” He winks.

“An attack by a Dark Wizard,” Lenore offers in the same quiet murmur, as if it was entirely obvious, and peers around vaguely. “Or Jack the Ripper. Kelly’s always harping on about Jack the Ripper, she’s probably going to will him into existance.” That simply stated, she clings at Aisling’s arm, rather tighter than would be necessary, as if the girl is a life raft or a human shield. Paranoia may be the origin of her problems, but when one lives with Kelly, paranoia becomes a part of your daily life.

Relief comes over Louis‘ face when Kitty and David arrive. “Yes! Games! Brilliant!” Answers Louis enthusiastically. Anything to stay away from dancing and possibly treading upon Alex’s poor bare feet. “Hello David, Kitty. Having fun?”

As Martin, Marie-Anna, and several other still-shod students linger by the entrance to the tent, Eliza Marlowe slides through a bit more quickly, clearing the way. A brief, “Hullo, Foster, Greyton,” all that she says, or has time to say, as she moves on into the tent. She notices the owl, and Martin’s sudden flush, but she gives him only a short, worried frown before she moves on. Geoffrey, still preening, is left behind for a moment, and scampers in a fairly undignified way to catch up to Eliza, who is already striding ahead. One of the Head Girl’s long arms sweeps down to scoop a casual handful of snacks up from a table as she passes, nodding her head in rhythm with the music.

Another nod is given to Olivia, but Evan pauses to reach for the Bertie Botts at his chosen spot at the table. If he opens them, it will look claimed, and he won’t have to worry about having a reserved seat next to his date. “I don’t think you’ll have to get wet; I’m surprised the goblins are willing, have you seen how..” in the midst of turning and heading toward the game, he realizes he has somehow lost her. Such a good escort he is! “..serious they usually are.. Olivia?” He has the advantage of being a growing fourteen year old, and can see over at least some people’s heads, by which means he proceeds to look around while angling back toward the dunking game.

Saphia Bona joins in with Clavicle, waving Riley over and doing her best not to look at his… remarkable… um, dress robes.

“Good riddance,” Rafe states. “She’s one of them. The pleasant ones.” He shudders momentarily at the thought of his housemates and then changes the subject. “Should we play a game or something?” And then, after glancing at the ground he offers, “We could go up to her… Clementine, I mean. It’s a party, she can’t exactly avoid us…”

“Almost!” he echoes, tossing his next ring, also missing. “Whoops,” he says, laughing and turning to Nate. “You made me miss!” he says, joking. Nodding, Gabriel looks to Felicity, who appears to be having a good enough time and glances back up to Nate. “Yeah, we’re having a good time,” he says with a grin. “Aren’t you going to try the ring toss? I bet I could win more prizes!” Gabe says excitedly.

Melvina Prichard grins, playfully, reaching out to pat Darius on the arm kindly. “Overtime, hmn? I suppose there are a few knuts I could spare laying about somewhere. Maybe I could share with you the profits made from vanishing my boots, hmn?” Her eyes sparkle as she nods, however, quite interested to hear about how the students were progressing. “Wonderful. Naturally, with as talented a musician as you directing them, I hardly doubt they’ll shine, but I’m pleased to know your prospects are high!”

“Yes! Let’s play some games!” replies David, still smiling and happily following Katherine. The boy waves at the other students he knows, letting out a “Riley!” or a “Saphia!” as he sees them, and actually tries to go and talk to them, but finally shrugs and mutters a “See you later!” as he surrenders to Katherine’s constant tugging. David also nods courteously to Kassandra, the other girl who invited him, but on the contrary to his previous friends, he does not make any efforts to stay any longer with her, as he still isn’t sure of what to think of that invitation. As he and Katherine meet Louis and Alexandra in front of the game stands, he waits contentedly for the others to choose what game to play.

Somewhere along the way, Katherine Nichols has picked up a handful of brownies, strewing crumbs across her spotlessly white gloves – but she does have enough to share, when Alexandra and Louis catch up. “Hullo!” she calls cheerfully, holding out the sweets for the others to share. “Want to try dunking a goblin? That looks like it would be more fun than the ring toss, and you can win better prizes from it, too. Wouldn’t you love one of those little birds, Alex?” Katherine points a crumb-covered finger up at the rack of prizes, where brightly-colored wooden birds flutter, set in motion by various enchantments.

“Yes! Punch!” Tallis raises a hand to her forehead. “Why on earth did I ask Marshall to come? Sure he has an excellent family and wonderful social ties, but Marshall Allyn?! The near-seven foot moron?! Disgraceful. Bad Tallis.” And then as Suki mentions Katherine, Tallis smirks. “Exactly. I do enjoy Kitty’s company.” As the two approach the young Hufflepuff girl, Tallis chimes in a rather high pitched baby-talk voice, “Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty…”

“Hi, Katherine,” Briony waves enthusiastically then turns to the game in front of her, not really paying attention to it. She whispers heatedly to Albert, something audible being about Felicity and her awful hair or something similar and stands with her arms crossed, glancing next to her discreetly as she watches her friend and her, ugh, cousin interact with their housemates.

Aisling O‘Cormac glances around quietly before turning back to Lenore. “But.” she says, then waits for a moment, considering her next move. “Wasn’t the last Ripper attack in 1888? In fact, all of them? What’s to worry about?” Thinking for a little bit, Aisling absently waves at some people she recognizes before continuing. “And why would a Dark Wizard attack Hogwarts, attack us?”

Clavicle Gravely waves to Kassandra and her date as well. He grins and bows a bit as he looks to Saphia, “Well any ideas on the unsticking of it?”

“Not really,” Kelly offers by way of a quiet response, peering about and trying to find Clementine – apparently she has misplaced her now – and fixing upon her a particularly potent glare. “I don’t like it when people avoid me. Even if they are nice.” She uses the word with a certain venom, as if there is very little that she could say that is much worse than that word. “What, is she afraid of me or something?” That fact that Clementine might be annoyed because the Gryffindor girl verbally abused her, belittled her and read her mail doesn’t seem to occur to her at all. “Hello, Miss Greyton!” She offers after a moment, suddenly distracted, looking up and waving at Marie-Anna, before looking for Clementine again with a similarly venomous expression.

“She looks very good,” Martin agrees as he glances around the tent. And then Eliza greets him–an out! “Eliza!” he calls as he drags Marie further into the tent. “Geoffrey…” he greets as he examines who he only assumes to be Eliza’s date. He raises an eyebrow questioningly, but says nothing. “Uh… you know Miss Greyton, right?” He runs a hand through his hair somewhat uncomfortably.

Riley Markham stomps down his foot with a soft sigh, once he has picked all the grass from it, before finally looking up with to note David. “David, oi!” He calls back, waving with a weary sort of grin, He’d just taken up his serving of every-flavor beans, when Clavicle’s voice and Saphia’s wave reach him. Cringing without really meaning to, he sets down the candies and considers, briefly, the value of fleeing like a coward. It did seem to have a fairly decent success rate at getting him out of this rather embarrassing situation, though it would only likely cause more embarrassment to deal with later. No, he decided. Time to take one’s lumps like a man. Pushing himself up, he slowly makes his way through the crowd to Clavy and Saphia, waving with one lace-ruffled hand. “Oi, ‘allo, mates.”

“Evan? Evan?” Olivia‘s voice rises in volume as she moves nearer to the games. She stops just several feet away from where the Dunk-the-Goblin game is, and looks about, her face filled with consternation. How could she have lost Evan? Though, she had to admit, the whole school being there made things a bit crowded. “Evan!” She clasps her hands together, scouring the group of people around her for the familiar face, feeling just ever so slightly nervous for reasons she couldn’t exactly place.

Marie-Anna Greyton gives Eliza a pleasant smile. “Hello, Eliza,” is greeted by the Gryffindor girl before she’s lead into the tent, and gives a nod towards Geoffrey. “Pleased to meet you,” is offered with a bit of a smile. Her attention, is then grabbed by Kelly’s greeting. “See, Kelly, I said you’d look good,” is noted with a nod of her head.

As Riley comes over, Saphia brightens up immediately, and whispers back, “Hello, Riley. You look.. um… ” and then she finally breaks down and whispers, “You look terribly awful and your grandmother is clearly the most evil woman on this earth and may actually be, in disguise, Satan herself. But I never said that.” She goes bright red as she realizes what she whispered, and then covers her mouth while diligently examining the pole.

Felicity Wexler is rather clearly having a blast, her cheeks still dappled crimson her wrist still tingling from Gabriel’s hand having been there moments before. Smiling briefly to whomever it is that her date is speaking, she turns her gaze resolutely back to the bottles and gives it another throw. Missing her third shot at well, though only barely.

Glaring acidly at Katherine, Suki bites her lip as she and Tallis stop in front of her. “Sorry about your dress, Kitty, Kitty,” Suki says with a cluck of her tongue. “Were they out of your size at the robe shop, forcing you to make your purchase at a store for dressing oversized Puffskeins?” Shaking her head sadly, Suki places a hand on her hip. “You should have told us you needed help, darling. Such a crisis could have been easily averted. All you need is a stitch-ripper to let dresses out.” Suki does not smirk after her sarcastic jeering, but maintains a pained expression.

Lenore Pantall shrugs her shoulders vaguely, as if to say that it’s not her job to determine the motives of a Dark Wizard, and slips under the table just to hide a little bit more. Dark Wizards, Jack the Ripper and her older sister surely won’t be able to find her if she’s hidden under the table! Reaching out to tug at the bottom of Aisling’s robes, the girl hisses an addition to her words, “Kelly says that Jack the Ripper could make another appearance any day. And! A girl from here was kidnapped by Jack the Ripper not long ago.”

“Not in this lifetime!” Nate states with the same lopsided grin on his face. “There’s no way you could beat me, Goden!” A chuckle escapes the boy’s mouth. And then he finally greets Felicity, “Ah, if it isn’t the… renowned Briony Wexler.” He gives the girl a low bow in greeting, “Humble Nate Hunter at your service! I’ve heard some interesting things about you! Gabe talks about you all the time…” He winks at his friend.

“Oh, they’re adorable, Kitty!” Alexandra squeals, even as she reaches to accept some brownies from her friend. “Let’s go dunk a goblin! Let’s!” Tugging on Louis’s arm, she points excitedly at the tank whilst bouncing on her bare toes. “Maybe you and David can see who can win their date a bigger prize!” she suggests wickedly, grinning.

“Hey… let’s throw some Suki or Tallis instead of a goblin. I’m sure that would be worth more points.” says David with a serious voice, as if he were actually serious. “What do you say, eh? Between us two, and you Riley, we could do it nicely…” he muses, smirking at the two Slytherin girls who were behind Katherine.

“She probably is afraid of you,” Rafe offers with a grin. “I hope she’s afraid of me. I wouldn’t want a Housemate not to be…” He eyes his date and then the Gryffindor prefect who Kelly greets, “Hello, Miss Greyton. Doesn’t Kelly’s hair look…curly?”

Clavicle Gravely grins as Riley comes in. “Porthos..” he states. “We’d not be complete without you.” He grins as he blinks and hmmms. “Are we allowed to tease you about the robes?”

Louis Harper bites his lower lip but follows after Alex as he is tugged by the arm. “All right then, One dripping Goblin coming up….” He says feigning confidence. Louis looks at the two older Slytherin girls Suki and Tallis as they speak to Kitty. He’s not exactly able to hear them as he follows after Alex but he’s sure whatever they are saying happens to be mean spirited a unwarranted.

Jaw dropping as Nate mistakes Felicity for Briony, Gabriel shakes his head madly, punching his friend lightly on the shoulder. “This isn’t Briony, you dolt! She’s over there,” he says, pointing exactly over at where Briony, indeed, is. (He’s obviously been keeping some kind of tabs on her). “This is Felicity Wexler.” Taking a hand to Felicity’s back, Gabriel pushes her forward to Nate slightly, shrugging at her recent, third miss. “This is Nate Hunter. Nate my mate,” Gabriel says, sounding rehearsed. He’s used this rhyme before.

As her shrill laugh, capable of breaking glass, floats up over the crowd, Clementine suddenly becomes rather easy to find. She doesn’t even know if the thing her date just said is actually funny, but apparently the faade is pulled of well enough and he gives her some money to play her game while he goes off to get them both something to drink. An idea which was hers, of course, not his. Tossing her straight hair, she scans the area for Kelly and Rafe with a fixed smile on her face but doesn’t see them. Whether or not she’s afraid of hasn’t been made clear yet, but there is a reason she wasn’t made a Gryffindor. Turning as people come up to where she has been left, she smiles wider, “Oh hi Alex! … Louis.” Even Louis gets a nice greeting. He is, after all, a lesser of the evils she could be exposed to.

Riley Markham can’t help but grin at Saphia’s words, a slow, wry chuckle escaping him in a conspiritorial sort of way. “Said what?” He responds, playfully, to the bespecticalled girl, before glancing to Clavicle with a small smirk. Though it’s a fair shot more friendly than he’s offered Clavicle recently. “I suppose so, mate. I didn’t pick’m, I just have to wear ‘im. Porthos, eh? And who’s Athos, Aramis, and D’artagnan?”

Crouching down to Lenore-under-the-table-height, Aisling looks at the other girl carefully. “No one was kidnapped by Jack the Ripper, certainly not from Hogwarts! That girl was taken by someone else.” Pausing for a moment, she glances venomously towards Kelly. “And it’s almost forty years since the attacks! Jack is probably dead. And if not, well, he’s stopped for good. Why else would he have a break of forty years? And change to the magical world?” Finishing off in a murmur, she mutters, “Perhaps I should tell Kelly where she’s wrong, here…”

Moving closer to the dunking game seems to do the trick; after peering over heads the whole winding way through the crowd, Evan nearly walks into her. “Excuse me, excuse me.. excu..oh! Olivia!” He gives a quiet, nervous laugh. “Barely even started and you’re already running from me.” Fishing a handful of coins from his pocket to pay, he sorts through them quickly, and shoves a couple at the person running the game, hardly even looking. “I’m sorry.. there, did you want to?” “And look, here comes Louis.”

“Pumpkin juice it is,” Karina laughs, making a small curtsy to Charles. She navigates her way through the growing crowd, waving to many a Hufflepuff on her way, before reaching the beverage table. After a few minutes she returns to Charles’s side with two glasses of cold, fresh pumpkin juice. “A toast?” she says to Charles.

Delayed even further by the Head Boy’s greeting, Geoffrey pauses, offering a perfectly polite, “Good to see you again, Martin,” and an almost courtly bow to Marie-Anna. “Yes, I do. A pleasure…” Torn between his duties as Eliza‘s escort and the duties of his manners to Martin and Marie-Anna, Geoffrey’s confident demeanor wavers a bit, and he glances uncertainly over his shoulder to where his date is rapidly disappearing into the tent. Eliza, already several yards away, glances casually over her shoulder, as if checking to see if she had dropped something. A faint cloud passes across the Head Girl’s expression when she spots Geoffrey, but Eliza just gives him a quick nod, beckoning him towards her.

This rather bizarre compliment is not lost on Kelly, who blushes faintly, though she remains rather distracted by trying to locate and glare Clementine in the crowd. “She probably is,” she confirms, folding her arms across her chest. “Afraid of us, I mean. She’s always running off when we’re nearby.” Once again, the reasons for this seem to entirely escape her. “Oh!” She gets drawn back to the matter at hand with a small smile. “Thank you, Miss Greyton.” She offers, bobbing her head slightly.

As Nellie keeps on turning her head into every direction to absorb and repeat every bit of fragmental conversations Andy needs a timeout. “Ahm… I’ll just walk over and fetch us some drinks, if you like.” As Nellie stated, that this was a great idea and told him that she would like to have a glass of punch. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Though this was least realistic. Andy shuffles across the marquee, but then realizes that he was just passing the games section, which was the most crowded place. He lifts his gaze, sees Briony standing at booth and walks over to her. “Hello Briony.” he greets, just noticing that Felicity, Gabriel and another Gryffindor were having a conversation a few yards away.

Take his glass firmly in his gloved hands Charles holds it up in front of himself. “To youth and to love!” He says with a laugh offering his glass up to clink Karina’s glass.

Tallis Carter continues to banter Suki has begun, “Indeed. My ladies’ maids could have assisted you. I would have just owled it to them–they’re quite helpful. Afterall I wouldn’t trust a needle in your pudgy little fingers…” She shrugs and then tilts her head at David, “Fascinating. Small boy with what he believes to be a smart mouth. I’ve always found that to be the most intriguing sort…I’m sure Marshall and…” she forgets the name of Suki’s date “…our dates would appreciate that.”

Lenore Pantall looks back at Aisling with narrowed eyes, shaking her head firmly. “No, no, Aisling.” She murmurs, peering out from under the table at the girl. “She was kidnapped by Jack the Ripper, there’s proof! And she was muggleborn, I think, and Jack the Ripper was probably a muggleborn wizard who turned evil. Er. Kelly thinks so.” And if Kelly has an opinion about serial killers, chances are that it’s true, in the poor girl’s mind.

At the sound of Suki and Tallis’s all-too-familiar voices, Katherine Nichols‘s bright smile instantly fades, and her round face begins to pucker into a hurt frown. “You. Go away,” she says flatly, turning to face the older girls straight on. “Or – or we will throw you into the water!” Inspiration strikes halfway through her weak retort. Spurred on by David’s suggestion, and strengthened by the presence of her other friends around her, Katherine pulls herself up to her full (but not very impressive) height, and says again, “Go away!”

An eyebrow is quirked at Louis’ father and Martin just narrows his eyes. The professor brought a date? Could professors date? He wrinkles his nose and smoothes his robes and then redirects his attention back to Geoffrey. “I think… I think Eliza wants you. Don’t feel obligated to chat with us. Your duties are to your escort, after all.” Or was Geoffrey the escort? Slightly confused, Martin shrugs his shoulders. He offers Marie a small smile.

Felicity Wexler squeaks, slightly. A slightly cross look touching her features at one; being mistaken for Briony, when they are very clearly different. The difference in Felicity‘s mind a few dozen pounds, at least. And two; how quickly it was that Gabriel seemed to pick out Briony’s location out of the crowd, as if he’d been watching her. She wasn’t entirely sure why that bothered her so much, but she was sure that the flush on her cheeks now wasn’t simply from the embarrassment of him touching her hand a few moments before. Still, she isn’t one to be out done. “Nate,” she greets, sweetly, nodding and giving something of a half-curtsey that seems appropriate for the formal nature of her attire. “Pleased to meet you. You can call me Lissy. And I’m Gabriel’s mate as well, at least for today.” She beams, happily, saying it in a rather full voice. Her smile is such, though, that her nose does wrinkle in the most adorable way, helping her same some face.

“Oh, there you are,” she comments and smiles at Evan as he approaches. She giggles and steps up to the booth, looking at the rather sour-looking goblin in the booth. “Hmn, I wonder how they got the goblins to agree to this,” she voices, echoing Evan’s earlier comments which she had been unable to hear, due to their separation. “They don’t look to be very happy about it. Who’s watching the vaults, do you think? If the goblins are all here, I mean.” Olivia takes the ball that is offered to her, lobbing it at the trigger and missing at a rather sickening distance.

Saphia Bona remains tight lipped, and suddenly has a brainwave. “Alright. We can’t move the bar, right? It’s stuck to whatever it touches firmly, right? But we can maybe change what that is that it’s stuck to!” Gleefully, she remarks, “I need permission from one of the teachers… or the headmistress! I can do this!”

Clavicle Gravely laughs at Saphia, “Well there’s a bunch of teachers over there making sure none of us get too close.” he grins and nods to Riley “Right … I’m the poetic one…who’s angry.”

Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles a little before nodding towards Geoffrey. “Indeed, they are, I’ll not keep you any longer from Eliza,” is offered with a pleasant enough smile, before she offers this same smile towards Martin. So…”

“To youth and to love,” Karina Sedgewick says with a smile and blush. She takes a sip of the juice, her eyes twinkling. “I do love you, Charles,” she says with a light laugh. Her blush deepens as she suddenly realizes what she just said, but she doesn’t take it back. Instead, she leans forward and kisses Charles lightly on the cheek.

The Gryffindor returns the punch to Gabriel and laughs, “Well, I just assumed–and I didn’t know what Briony looked like…” his cheeks flush slightly and then the boy offers the pair a shrug. “That’s me, Nate Hunter. Well, actually it’s technically Leopold Nathanial Hunter, but Nate is just better. And please forgive me, Miss Wexler. Just a case of mistaken identity,” Nate smiles at the girl. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lissy. I’m sure you know how beautiful you look–even old Gabe here couldn’t have made that oversight.” He offers her a warm smile.

“Hello Saphia.” Kassandra Verkooyen greets, with a slight bow. “Clavicle.” she adds. “May I introduce my date.” she looks up to Richard. “Richard Terry, a second-year housemate of ours. What a wonderful evening, isn’t it? Have you already tasted the food? It just looks marvelous. A what a splendid dress, Saphia.” she steps back to examine Saphia’s dress. “Madame Malkins, isn’t it?”

Charlie Linwood slinks out onto the lawn, very carefully not in dress robes. He has, however, procured for himself a rather nicely tailored dress-up suit, having quailed at the dress robes(his reaction something along the lines of ‘That’s even more of a ruddy dress than the regular robes!’ and ‘They cannot make me dress like a girl.’) Still, his face is washed, his hair is nicely combed, and everything seems to be in place as though he were attending a muggle social. Without his shoes on. Yes, Charlie‘s feet are properly bare, whether anyone else took the title seriously or not. He is late, and he is, of course, alone.

“I’m sure they aren’t all here; likely they work in shifts, and we’ve got the off-duty shift. It would be interesting to know what we offered them for the favor though..” Evan stands back, watching as Olivia makes her first toss, and where it goes. “Here, try again.. just think about… pushing it forward.” He laughs once, more freely this time. “And about that goblin under water.”

Charles Harper takes a sip of his glass as well toasting to youth an love and even a blush comes over the face of the seasoned Auror. “I love you Karina. I have for some time now.” Charles closes his eyes when Karina kisses him and then brings her into a hug. Ah romance!

Saphia Bona smiles to Kassandra as she walks up to them, looking positively unladylike as she giggles with excitement in her newfound solution to the unsticking charm game. “Oh, hello Kassandra! Hello Richard,” she smiles as well, and nods, “It’s a Malkin’s robe, yes, but I still think it’s very nice!” Suddenly, she spots… “Professor! Professor Sedgewick!” She waves at the potions professor, trying to attract her attention in the chaos.

With a laugh, Gabriel adds, “Oh, yeah,” with a nod. “Felicity asked me here… and… yes, you do look very, very nice,” he says emphatically, looking her full in the face. Gabriel probably should have thought to comment earlier (girls liked that, didn’t they?), but, well, hindsight is 20/20. “And your dress is… pretty.” Gabriel says the word as if it doesn’t often cross his lips, but shrugs afterwards, his task complete in his mind. “If you want to bug him, which you will, just call him Leopold,” he says, nudging the other boy. “He hates it more than he makes it seem!”

Aisling O‘Cormac joins Lenore under the table, watching the rest of the room carefully. “I think that Kelly thinks and talks much too much about serial killers..” Looking out at everyone’s feet, Aisling continues, “Um, do you feel like maybe playing one of the games? The ring toss, maybe, or the goblin dunking? Or… are you hungry?” As much as she appreciates and loves her friend, Aisling would rather be upright and able to talk with others than sitting under a table. But if Lenore stays, she will too.

Riley Markham chuckles, nodding to Clavicle and passing a glance to Saphia with obvious amusement, despite the weary sort of annoyance that clings to his pale features. His gaze shifts toward Kassandra as she approaches, arching a brow, though saying nothing. Nodding to her, and giving Richard a small wave and greeting, “Terry,” Riley looks decidedly out-of-place. Rather beginning to feel like a fifth wheel.

Suddenly distracted from the present conversation – ah, what a fickle girl she is – Kelly spies Charlie and all but skips to his side with a cheerful grin. “Charlie! I was wondering if you were going to be able to make it.” Never mind that she just ran off on Rafe to go chat with Charlie, which probably doesn’t look good to anyone else. “Well, not that there was anything else for you to do tonight, but it’s good that you came – don’t you have a date?” Not that this would be entirely obvious at all by the fact that he’s entirely alone. “Oh well. I can pretend to be your date for a little while if you want?” This is offered cheerfully, apparently not registering that this is Not A Good Thing, as she already has one. Who she just ran off on. Oh dear.

“We’ll stay where we want to, Kitty,” Suki hisses, but growing quickly bored of the situation. “Where is my punch?” she asks shrilly, as not a moment too soon, the bumbling Shawn shambles up to Suki with a glass of pink liquid. “Punch,” he grunts as Suki snatches the glass away. “Finally,” she snaps, a hand still on her hip.

Looking back at Suki, then Tallis, David answers with a very calm voice, the giddiness of the event actually making him braver and more inspired than he would have been on an average day. “So… showing off your dates, are you? How much did you have to pay them to convince to come with you?” he says with a small smirk? “No boy would go with a pair of geese like you otherwise, and then, only people without morality would do that…”

“Pushing it fooorward, alright…” She makes the motions of tossing the ball again before she actually does so, this time, making it much closer, but still not hitting the target. “Hmm, I’m sure I can do this. Can I have the other ball?” She holds her hand out, as if trying to judge the aim she would need. Perhaps she has seen someone else do this very aiming technique, and while it looks quite professional, one has to doubt whether Olivia actually knows that this is helping or not. “I’m sure the third one will do it.” She smiles widely at Evan, actually feeling quite hopeful for her last shot.

It takes a moment for Karina Sedgewick to pull herself away from the universe that is her and Charles, but when she does, she notices Saphia and gives her an enthusiastic wave. “Miss Bona!” she greets the Ravenclaw. “Mr. Gravely, Mr. Markham! I’m glad to see you all enjoying yourself!” she shouts across the crowd. Karina rarely shouts. “I would have to congratulate the headmistress on this excellent event,” she says to Charles. “I think we can all use the opportunity to relax and enjoy ourselves.”

“I say, I thought you didn’t like pink, Suki,” Katherine retorts, in a sudden flash of bravery, and with a smug, pointed glance at the punch. “And you wouldn’t dare try anything, not with all the professors here. And the Headmistress.” Katherine tosses her head, setting her ringlets bouncing around her shoulders. David‘s addition to the debate makes her gasp, though, and she turns to stare at the Ravenclaw boy with scandalized awe.

“Probably true…” Lenore offers quietly, her voice barely audible in tone again, peering out from under the table, her moves tentative and hesitant to say the least. “Can you see her? Er… I think I’ll stay under here for a while.” If Kelly has vanished from sight, that cannot be a good thing, meaning that the small Hufflepuff has even more reason to be hiding under the table.

Felicity Wexler seems mollified by the belated praise, choosing not to notice how stuttered it comes. She was, if nothing else, always willing to bask in the attention of others. Regardless if it came naturally or not. Smiling happily, her blushing cheers resume a pleasant sort of pink color and she glances to Nate with playful eyes. “Leopold? Awh, but that’s such a handsome name,” she teases, giggling. “Why, if you were my date, then I could call you “Leo-pooh”. Or perhaps “Leo-doll”. Wouldn’t that be splendid?” Her eyes shimmer, mischievously.

Clavicle Gravely Grins to Kassandra and Richard. To whom he offers a hand. Of course on his hands is a bouncing tattoo of a skeletal dog. “Nice to meet you!” He says with a genuine smile

Clavicle Gravely nods politely to Karina Sedgewick. “And to you Ma’am.”

Charles Harper smiles as Karina brings him back to reality with mentioning Saphia’s last name. He looks down at the young Ravenclaw with a broad smile. “Ah Miss Bona. You are looking a great deal better than the last time we met. I do hope things have gotten better yes?” Charles takes Karina’s hand in his own while he speaks forgetting that Saphia probably doesn’t even remember him.

Marie-Anna Greyton carries on politely conversing with those around her, as the moment may call for.

Arriving on her own, Tahiri Sol sweeps in to the social with all her usual silent grace. Offering a nod to each of the goblins and trolls manning the door, she moves toward the round tables with a only a small glance giving toward the room.

Having attracted the attention of the professor, Saphia quickly darts over and says, “Professor Sedgewick, I need permission to cast a charm that would make a handkerchief intangible. Or I need a professor to cast it. I can win one of the contests this way! Please?” She actually clasps her hands together in a classic begging pose. As Charles spots her and comments, she smiles, “I’m very well now, thank you Mr…. Mr. Auror, sir.” She never did actually learn his name.

Charlie Linwood looks at Kelly and raises his eyebrows, though does not make any audible comment on her appearance. Doesn’t have to, now does he? “Erm… well, what about, you know?” He looks around now, trying not to notice anyone who stares, “DeWitt. You made such a fuss of asking him, and… well..” Charlie nervously rubs the back of his neck, “Alright. But not as a date, just to keep you company if he’s busy or something.” He takes a few steps out, cheeks a bit rosy, “I feel ridiculous without shoes on.” His eyes flicker around, and linger on a few of the couples. “I should’ve just stayed in, but I bought the ruddy suit so my father would get quite cross if I didn’t use it….”

“Er. If you will excuse me…?” Geoffrey gives Marie another quick, courtly bow before edging off into the crowd towards Eliza Marlowe. The Head Girl, for her part, seems entirely unconcerned with her lack of an escort for the moment – she’s surveying the scene, keeping a sharp watchful eye on the crowd. Uh-oh – trouble over by the goblin dunk? Eliza‘s expression darkens as she sees Suki and Tallis swooping in towards the younger students, but she does nothing more than note the situation with a quick nod of her head, and turns back towards Geoffrey as he pushes his way towards her. “Ready to dance, if a good song comes up?” the Head Girl asks, jerking her head towards the band with a grin.

Evan Geroff grins back at Olivia, placing the third ball, which he has been holding, in her hand. “Third time always does it.” He neglects to offer more advice; being a chaser, he knows how to throw balls, but this doesn’t quite seem the place for a quidditch lesson after all.

“Suki is pretty,” is Shawn’s stunningly clever retort to David’s question. Suki, however, is not amused, hitting the boy over the head and whispering, ‘clever…’ into Shawn’s ear before laughing loudly. “The reason this social called for girls asking boys here was so that there’d be no emergencies– boys trampling each other– in order to be the first to ask Tallis and myself. Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish, Mildred,” Suki warns as she looks over to Katherine. “I’m sorry, just what are you implying?” the girl asks, tilting her head.

Alexandra Leong comes to her friend’s defense, even as the rest of their group rally around Kitty. “Some people just can’t stand people with real friends, Kitty,” she says, “Come on, let’s go play.” Alexandra, taking the high road? Impossible. Something’s up.

Sighing a bit as Albert presents a prize to her, she smiles up at him thankfully. “How SWEET!” she tells him, saying it rather more loudly than is absolutely necessary. “Would you look at that, Albert won a prize for me!” She giggles and hugs the boy rather over-enthusiastically. She glances over and sees that Felicity seems to be oblivious of her antics, though Gabriel almost appears to be watching. Well, honestly, why would he be watching? Briony huffs a bit and looks at the prize. “Shall we head over and get some seats?” she suggests and drags Albert off towards where the tables. “I’d like to put this down so it doesn’t get ruined.” She giggles a bit and heads in that direction quickly.

Riley Markham lifts his gaze toward Karina with slightly wide eyes, somewhat surprised she’d speak to him after his Pepper-Up Potion made her openly weep a few days before. “Hallo, Professor,” he replies, kindly, though in somewhat sheepish tone. Charles, however, fully catches his attention as the man greets Saphia. His eyes narrowing almost instantly, though can’t really be certain why.

Completely forgetting about Nellie and still standing next to Briony and Albert, it was just the scenario Andy had expected. Felicity having a good time with her date, blushing and chuckling whatever compliment or joke he would be making. At least it seemed so, from the distance. In a few days he would even have to play Quidditch in the same team with him. Probably passing him the quaffles which he would easily convert into points. All the glory pocketed by Gabriel.

Louis Harper stands behind Alexandra and Katherine glaring hard at the older Slytherin girls and there dates. “I don’t think Astra …. or Martin would like to hear about you both being…. anti-social at a social.” He tries his best to sound menacing but being only in his third year and slim as a toothpick that could be rather silly looking.

Even though she had been speaking to him only moments before, Kelly‘s expression is suddenly one of surprise, as if she had momentarily forgotten that she already had a date. Then, she blushes quite furiously and offers, quietly and confidentially, “I can’t get used to the idea that I have, you know, a sweetheart now. It’s just so random!” Then, she looks up, scoping the crowd for the elusive Rafe, and her voice raises again to a much more normal level. “I think I misplaced him, though. So I can keep you company until I find him again.”

Karina Sedgewick seems intrigued. “Did you check with the operators of the game that this is within their rules?” she asks Saphia, with a bit more seriousness than she really intended. “And, if I agree to cast it, do I get a part of the prize?” She seems bent on seriously negotiations, although her eyes are twinkling with mirth. “What do you think, Charles? What would be fair?”

A giggle bursts out of Katherine Nichols, full of actual amusement at the prospect of anyone liking Suki and Tallis. “I’m not implying anything!” she protests with perfect innocence, but giggles continue to bubble out of her, bright and giddy with exhilaration at being able to stand up to the older girls, and having her friends clustered behind her. “Yes, let’s try, Alex.” One last flash of mischief rises up in Katherine‘s eyes as she adds, “It’s much more fun to dunk goblins than to talk to them.”

“I think you have too many delusions of grandeur, Korosu. You think every boy wants to go out with you… but you see, I’m a boy, and I actually get to hear what boys say. Which is far from being what you think it is. Now go away, and let us throw our Goblin.” says David. “Unless you want us to do you instead.”

Clavicle Gravely has wandered up towards things with Saphia and nods to Mr. Harper. “Good day to you.” the Gravely boy states. Clavicle is a Gravely, of the Gravely Shadow Emporium and Autumnal Carnival. A carnival that travels in both worlds. He offers the man a hand, and Clavicle it seems, has some of the markings of his father, Gravely the Second, as he already has animated tattoos here and there. “You were one of the ones that helped rescue Miss Bona? As her friend, I owe you a debt of gratitude.” He offers a hand to the man, the boy seems so formal, to be only 12. “If you are ever about the school sometime, I would consider it an honor to bend your ear with questions on your trade, I could write a good paper for Professor Rathe I suspect.”

Extremely amused by the whole notion of ‘Leo-pooh’, Gabriel laughs as he nods animatedly to Felicity. “Good one!” he declares, grinning. Glancing over slightly as he hears the familiar voice exclaim, ‘Sweet!’, Gabe quickly turns back to the other two. “That’s enough ring-toss,” he exclaims, taking Felicity’s hand. “Want me to get you some punch?” he asks. Oh, he was good at this date thing.

Charles Harper strokes his chin thoughtfully at the question “My name is Charles Harper, and it is a pleasure to rightfully make your acquaintance Miss Bona.” Charles looks at Riley with almost the same look he is given. “As for winning this game…. as long as it’s operators are not against it I don’t see why not…. es It sounds fair Karina.” He chuckles again.

Aisling O‘Cormac looks around and then back to Lenore. “I can’t see her…” she comments. “I saw her move that way,” she gestures obliquely, “but after that, I don’t know where she went.” Espying a gap in the crowd beside their table, Aisling continues, “I think it would be safe enough to go over and play ring toss? Just one round, promise, and if we see her, we can come back here?” Her friend’s shyness is chafing, but she won’t leave her.

Clementine Duncan slips away in her date’s absence after failing to dunk the goblin. Wandering away from where he probably would come to find her, walks around with no real aim other then.. not being found. It might be cruel, but she doesn’t see it that way just yet. She glides gracefully past Kelly and Charlie, stopping not far from them as she peers around for her date… just in case he’s anywhere that he could possibly see her. He tall, too, after all.

Saphia Bona ‘s face falls immediately as she realizes that the answer to Karina’s first question is ‘No’. “Oh. Well, it would have worked…” She sighs unhappily, realizing that no, it really probably isn’t within the rules to pass an intangible handkerchief between the bar and the pole and lift it off with it. “I… I guess I’ll go take a look at it and see if I can find another solution…” Which indeed, she probably will unless someone manages to derail her fixation.

Charlie Linwood shrugs, then, though he seems somehow distracted, and keeps smoothing down the front of his coat. “Well, if you think he won’t mind too much, Kate.” Another wide look about. Somehow there seemed to be so many more people out here than ever at the Great Hall. Perhaps it’s the multitude of colors differentiating everyone. “What’s there to do?” Clementine gets a vague glance-over, but unlike a lot of the boys here tonight, he’s taking very little notice of the prettiness of the girls. Gee.

Lenore Pantall crawls out from under the table, though her expression is still one that indicates it would not be a fun thing at all. “Just one.” She promises, clinging to the other girl’s arm in a near deathgrip. “And if we see Kelly, I’m going straight back under that table.”

“Do me?” Suki repeats, eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.” Huffing, Suki turns to shove Shawn away from the little cretins. “Come, Shawn, it’s time for you to win prizes for me.” Shawn seems very happy about this, as he chuckles and runs solidly to the booth, looking eager to be put back into his comfort zone: sports. Suki only sighs, glaring nastily at David and Katherine in turn.

“But, we haven’t won any–” Felicity starts to say, frowning a little. A sure sign that despite her nice masks and the smoke and mirrors of her pleasant facade, she’d been watching Briony and Albert all the same. She does, however, catch herself. Bringing a warm smile to her lips, she nods demurely. “That sounds wonderful. I’d love some punch.” The woman running the ring toss, however, must overhear, as she motions for Gabriel to lean close and so that she can hand him one of the lowest tier prizes. A terribly cute (in a hideously ugly sort of way) plush kappa.

“Alright,” Olivia answers and breathes in deeply, chucking the ball at the target and closing her eyes. Momentarily, though, she hears a large SPLASH! “Oh! OH!” She claps excitedly and giggles, taking her prize happily. “I did it! I dunked the goblin!” She pauses and glances at him. “Oh, my, doesn’t he look mad. Let’s… perhaps we should head back to the table so I can put this down.” She pauses. “Do you want it?” She brandishes it in his direction with a big smile. “I won it.” Her face is filled with joy and surprise.

Kelly Pantall pauses for a moment, thinking this over. Would Rafe mind that she walked off mid-conversation, misplaced him, and attached herself to another boy? Well, if she manages to register that most people probably would mind quite a lot if that happened, it doesn’t show in her actions and words. “Well, there’s a whole lot of games and so forth. Dunking goblins and ring tosses and so forth. Or dancing. Do you dance, Charlie? I don’t think Rafe does, so I didn’t want to tell him that I really do like it.” See how considerate she is? Pausing for a moment in her conversation, she twirls the skirt of her robes back and forth. Swoosh. Swoosh.

Letting out another peal of laughter in triumph, Katherine turns her back on Suki and Shawn with elaborate care. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe we made them go away!” she gasps under her breath to the others, her face pinkening with leftover agitation and giddy glee. She reaches into her purse – just as pink and ruffled as her dress – to pull out several Knuts. “Let’s start playing! Oh, good show, Olivia!” she cries, enthusiastically applauding her housemate’s success at the game, and patiently waiting her own turn.

David chuckles Suki walks away, understanding that she was fleeing away. “I pity his date. Either so smitten with her that he can’t think straight, in which case I hope for him he’ll recover quickly, or he’s genuinely stupid. Oh well. Who wants to throw his first goblin?” he asks cheerfully.

Having started to head for the punch, Gabriel‘s attention is caught by the woman, and he releases Felicity’s hand momentarily to accept the covert prize. Returning to Felicity and Nate, Gabriel holds up the plush kappa for them to see. “Look at this, she gave me one!” Wait for it… wait for it… comprehension! “Ohh,” Gabriel says quietly as he understands. “Here Felicity, I want you to have it,” he says, passing the plush kappa to her with one hand and offering his other arm to her simultaneously. “Now punch,” he says.

Clavicle Gravely backs away a bit from Charles Harper and shrugs a touch. Uncertain, he decides not to push for attention and looks back to his friends. “The best thing to do…is ask them what the rules actually are, then find the loophole.”

Evan Geroff laughs happily, and even makes a move to hug Olivia – but wait, this isn’t one of his sisters, this is his date.. would it even be proper? – and so, still grinning despite his confusion, he changes his motion easily to simply reach for her arm again, to escort her back to the table. “Wonderful job! Do I.. oh, but I think we have it backwards, I was supposed to win you something. We probably ought to get out of that goblin’s sight range for a while though..”

Having just crawled out from under the table, Aisling stares around a little, taking in the huge amount of people present. Heading slowly towards the ring toss through the masses of people, she somewhat hauls the other girl along, stuck as she is onto her arm. Arriving at the ring toss, Aisling waves quickly at Olivia, who she met prior to the Sorting, and other people she’s met, over at the goblin-dunking stand. At the stall holder’s query, she turns to Lenore. “Do you want to go first?” she queries.

“Oh, let us sit there where we can watch the others trying the games. Maybe you could win a prize for me later?” Kassandra chirps. She and Richard walk over to the chairs and sit down. Sipping on their glasses of punch and watching the ‘Dunk the Goblin’ game. Laughing every time the poor goblin plunges into the water.

Riley Markham sigh, softly, lifting a hand to brush back his hair — despite the fact that for once, it’s actually tightly tied back for a change. “I think I’m going to go get something to eat. Why don’t you both, go, you know, have some fun. Play some games, or something. Have some fun or..” The words seem to stick in his throat, obviously having reach the limit of his fifth-wheel tolerance. “Dance,” he says, finally, with something almost like a small gasp. “Or something. Just, yeah. Excuse me, eh?” Still, he smiles, before backing up a step and turning toward the food tables. His scarred foot continually picking up blades of grass with it as he walks.

“Well… I don’t, really,” Charlie is Uncomfortable, with the capital ‘U’ and all, all of a sudden, and so quickly rushes, “I mean, once or twice, I’ve had to with my cousin–she’s a muggle, but was learning,” he’s only upper middle class, this one. Charlie fidgets again and seems to notice Kelly’s dress robes. “Green.” Indistinct muttering, and he sort of dawdles, though his eyes move toward the games rather than the dancers.

Saphia Bona looks to Riley unhappily as he begins to walk away, but knows better than to chase after him now. Instead, she merely mouths the words, ‘Goodbye’… as he heads off, but, his back turned, he doesn’t see it. Saphia looks to Clavicle instead and asks, “So, um, what do you want to do?”

Apparently Gabriel was having all the group’s attention at the moment. That could be Andy Carver‘s chance. He sidles through the crowd, passes a few couples and finally tries to scurry out of sight behind Gabriel’s back and remain unrecognized.

Lenore Pantall shrugs vaguely at Aisling, though she does take the ring and toss it inexpertly at the bottles. She repeats this twice, before turning back to Aisling with an ‘I give up!’ sort of expression. “I have bad aim.” She observes quietly, returning to clinging tightly to Aisling’s arm.

Clavicle Gravely hmms. “Hey Riley.. er. Save me a sandwich. Yeah? We have to talk quidditch later.” he shrugs to Saphia and looks at the mostly unused dance area. “Well then. shall we do some of that grass bending?”

Felicity Wexler turns a shade of scarlet to match her dress as she’s offered by the adorably-ugly doll and the Gabriel’s arm, accepting both in turn. Pulling her lower lip between her teeth and chewing on it nervously for a moment, she lowers her gaze in a slightly embarrassed way, before glancing toward Briony out the corner of her eye. Cradling the plush turtle to her, she covertly (do her best to keep Gabriel from noticing), pokes her tongue out at Briony in a ha-ha sort of way. A heartbeat out and back in, but enough to convey a message. She’d gotten a prize, too.

A skinny boy can be seen quickly walking down from the castle, still fumbling with his dress tie, he mutters a few things to himself, “Blimey, I can’t be on time for anything!” Chris finally reaches the large group of people, his tie finally submitting to his will, he seems to look for someone. “I hope she didn’t leave, serves me right for bein’ so late.”

Kelly Pantall is hardly upper-class herself, as much as her mother tries to persuade the world otherwise, and she grabs firmly for his arm to try and pull him back towards the dancers. See, Charlie she has no qualms about pushing around, and hence the biggest difference between him and Rafe. Except for all the other petty differences. “Just one dance, please? I promise you, if Rafe gets annoyed, I’ll tell him I persuaded you to do it so you don’t have to have a big man-fight in my honour.”

Saphia Bona smiles and only blushes a little as she and Clavicle tread away to the dance ‘floor’. At the dancefloor are a set of dancing shoes, together with a sign reading ‘Please wear shoes while on the dance floor. Regards, Professor Dwight.” Saphia looks at them and looks to Clavicle for direction.

“Aye,” Riley calls, without looking back. Lifting a hand to wave back toward Clavicle and Saphia to demonstrate he’d heard Clavicle’s request. Heading to the tables and stopping in front of the desert line, he snatches up a chocolate biscuit and chomps in to it savagely.

A flash of emerald reveals a Ravenclaw first year who had been hanging around the outskirts of the social, looking for her date. As Chris is spotted, Kara walks up toward him, a grin on her face. “Hi Chris! I thought I had missed you in the commons, so I came out here. And now here you are!”

Clavicle Gravely looks at the shoes with suspicion but shrugs as he tugs a pair on. “Shoes on the dance floor. I hope they don’t try to dance on their own.”

Accepting the three rings from the stall holder, Aisling O‘Cormac shakes Lenore off her arm gently, getting ready to toss her rings. As the first one knocks into a bottle of butterbeer, she pouts a little. Getting ready to throw her second ring, she turns to Lenore. “See?” she says. “It’s not so bad. And there’s no sign of Kelly, either.”

Charlie Linwood doesn’t really put up a protest, letting himself be pulled over to the dancing. A distracted, “Alright, that seems fair,” is all he says. Shaking his head, though, the boy focuses, and offers up a more relaxed smile, “I owe you for Astronomy, anyway, right?” He seems to have decided turning down Kelly’s offer has more cons than accepting it, as he straightens up a bit.

“Ooh, they are heading for the dancefloor.” Kassandra almost cheers. “Shall we?” she asks her date with a challenging glance. He shrugs smiling and both of them rise, walk to the dancing section and eye the shoes that are provided. “I thought it was a barefoot.” Richard states. “I had brought my own shoes, if I had known this before.” Kassandra moans.

“Well, I don’t mind if you don’t,” she responds, sounding still cheerful. “Oh, my, it is hot in here? There are so many people around.” Olivia smiles to Evan as they reach their seats, gesturing for Evan to have the plush toy join his sweets. “Maybe we should get some punch, or water or something. I wonder what kind of punch they have. Maybe we should even have some sweets. By rule, mum doesn’t like me to have sweets, but maybe today can be special.” She smiles and grabs at Evan’s hand, as if to lead him over to the long table.

“Exactly!” Kelly crows, clapping her hands as if she just stumbled across the perfect way to persuade him. “You owe me for Astronomy, because I let you use my telescope and I – handed in your essay for you.” Ah, those blank sheets of paper don’t just write themselves. Then, she takes his hands firmly, assuming he actually allows her to do so, slipping on a pair of the special dancing shoes. “Besides, that thing you told me not to mention? Now everyone will know it’s not true.” Because obliquely referring to it like this doesn’t count as bringing it up, of course.

Sitting quietly at one of the round tables, off to the side of the room, Orion Kari has his bare feet propped up in the chair next to him in a bored sort of way. One leg bent to provide a natural easel, the handsome olive-skinned Hufflepuff scratches away at a sketchbook, capturing the social with the point of the quill he holds.

Gabriel Goden wouldn’t have seen Felicity’s gesture to Briony, but he tugs her along just the same towards the punch. Ladling a cup (very) full, he hands it rather carefully to Felicity. “Here you go. It’s pretty full, sorry,” he says, understating the dangerously near to overflowing glass. Gabriel does not make the same mistake with his punch, though, which he downs all in one go. Wiping his sleeve over his face (oh how his mother would disapprove!), Gabriel raises an eyebrow as, while scanning the crowd vaguely looking for Briony, looses his balance slightly and steps backwards a little to catch himself, rather toppling into Andy. “What the-!”

“Shoes? Right then.” With a shrug and a toss of her head, Eliza Marlowe slips on a pair of the dancing shoes; Geoffrey, a little less certain about the whole matter, follow suit. As Eliza‘s foot hits the dance floor, the music changes, swiftly picking up tempo. A grin spreads across the Head Girl’s face, and she reaches out to take Geoffrey’s hand. “All riiiight,” she says, with an appreciative look over at the band. “I love this song.” Even though a few other couples have ventured onto the floor – a pair of fifth-years awkwardly entwined in each other’s arms and swaying; a cluster of girls bouncing around to follow the tempo of whatever music happens to be playing – Eliza and Geoffrey actually look like they know what they’re doing, and the music follows suit. The Head Girl swings around, moving with the same effortless grace that she brings to the Quidditch pitch. Twirling out along the length of Geoffrey’s arm and then reeling back in again, Eliza lets out a laugh as she spins in time with the music. Unlike some girls on the dance floor, though, Eliza doesn’t let her hand linger on her date’s arm for any longer than is necessary, and doesn’t spin in too close. He’s a dance partner, it seems, and nothing more.

Lenore Pantall peers about the area suspiciously, her eyes darting about and shining with youthful paranoia. She grabs at Aisling’s arm even tighter all of a sudden, clinging tightly to her and probably causing her to miss the next throw. “Kelly! Dancefloor.” Admittedly, that is quite a way away, but she had to announce her observance. “And she’s with a boy. A Hufflepuff one, I think.”

Clavicle Gravely follows along with the music as well. His dance style is basic, as he’s far more interested in trying to make Saphia feel comfortable then show off.

“All, good luck,” Karina Sedgewick says to Saphia. She turns her attention back to her date, and as the dance music starts to play a mischievous smile creeps onto her face. “May I have this dance?” she asks Charles, behaving like a perfect gentlewoman.

Marie-Anna Greyton has managed to find herself separated from her so-called date and is now being a wallflower, though she seems entertained enough as she watches the goings on of the dance floor.

“I don’t mind,” Evan agrees, stroking the toy once before setting it, sitting upright, next to his every-flavor beans. He likewise does not object as Olivia grabs his hand. “Of course we should have some – this certainly isn’t normal, and we can’t pass them up after the school went to so much trouble to set all of this out.” “Those tarts look particularly good, do you like strawberry?”

Charlie Linwood turns rather red around the edges of his face as he slips on the odd shoes and lets Kelly, of all things, take his hands. “Right,” murmurs Charlie, expression suddenly sharp. “After all, Kate, you are a girl.” Wonder of wonders, can it be true? Shh. There’s a moment of pause before he, should Kelly be so inclined, begins to lead in some not-too-close-to-my-body-please dance.

Charles Harper chuckles sipping his drink and watching to social progress. “It really is a lovely night Karina dear.” Charles sets down his glass and nods with a gracious “Ah but of course! I was hoping you would ask!”

Saphia Bona watches Eliza, and gets the idea immediately, “Oh, that’s so clever! It’s a tying charm, look at the instruments! They’ve got those silver ribbons on them that show the connec– woah!” Saphia gasps as Clavicle whisks her onto the dance floor. Smiling after her moments shock, Saphia happily, if clumsily, dances with Clavicle. The beat stays steady, but a few of the instruments break away to provide a slower melody under the fast beat, allowing Saphia and Clavicle the leeway to dance a slower pace than Eliza and Geoffrey.

Aisling O‘Cormac is suddenly grabbed by Lenore, distracting her and making her ring fly extremely wide of the mark. Peering at the dancefloor, she squints at the couple. “Heey…” she says, thoughtfully. “That’s not Rafe! I thought she was going with Rafe?” Casually tossing her last ring, she turns properly to Lenore, her ring landing over a butterbeer bottle unseen, and unthought of.

Clementine Duncan seems to be doing the same thing as Marie-Anna… and seems perfectly content doing so. It’s amazing how even in an orange dress, Clem manages to remain undetected.

Kara Raine giggles and shakes her head, the few curls bouncing merrily around her face. “You got lost again? Well, I suppose that by the time we graduate we might figure this place out.” Kara does the blushing now, at the comment. “Why thank you kind sir. You look nice as well, but its kind of strange being with out shoes. So, what would you like to do, there is ever so much here! Games and food, and dancing. I think I checked out everything while I was looking around for you.”

Kelly Pantall apparently respects Charlie’s personal space enough not to dance too closely, even if she does invade it on a regular basis under normal circumstances by randomly hugging him and grabbing at his arms periodically. “Yes, well done, I am a girl.” Her tone is cheerful rather than insulted, and she seems not to take remote offense to anything he happens to say. “But that’s okay. I understand and all. But you dance quite well, really.” She offers generously, spinning around a little and allowing her skirt to bell around her. That’s the best part of her dress robes.

Why has just everything gone wrong today? Andy closes his eyes for a split second and takes a deep breath. Now he would make a fool of himself in front of Felicity and his housemates. He just recognises that he is still holding his shoulder, preventing Gabriel from falling down. “Oh… ahm… sorry.” Andy tries not to look into Felicity’s eyes. “Are you alright?”

Without another word, Karina Sedgewick catches Charles’s hand and makes her way to the dance floor. A pair of dance shoes mysteriously find their way onto her feet, and she finds herself shoed and dancing, a more stately dance than the ones partaken by the youngsters.

“I thought she was going with Rafe, too!” Lenore hisses in response, leaning closer to Aisling and lowering her voice still further and adding, “In fact, she’s been harping on about it for, well, ever. And she told me he asked her to be his sweetheart.” This is said with a slightly triumphant voice, and she continues at a low hiss. “Which means either she was lying or she’s being unfaithful to him already.” The fact that Kelly might be dancing with another boy just as friends totally escapes her.

Clavicle Gravely grins a bit as he continues to dance with her “You are better at this then you give yourself credit.” he laughs a bit. The beat that meets them is perfect for the shoes touching the floor

Charles Harper cannot help but to laugh a bit when the shoes find his feet and he starts danceing allone with Karina. “I must say the music is excellent! Did they hire somone?” Charles is smileing while watching his date’s dance moves.

Aisling O‘Cormac looks shocked. “I’m not sure which of the two is worse!” she whispers vehemently back to Lenore. “I’m of half a mind to go and confront her about this!” she continues, before she is interrupted by the stall holder thrusting a small prize at her. “Oh!” she exclaims. “Look, Lenore, I won a prize! Do you want it?” she offers, friendlyly.

Kassandra Verkooyen and Richard slip into the dancing shoes. She chose some matching blue ones. He was content with a plain black pair, but as they just fitted themselves into his proper shoesize, their color changed to the same creamy tone as his robes. Kassandra was the one who had to lead the dance and after some starting problems, they had a good time dancing to the diversified tunes.

The Ravenclaw boy seems to try and control his nervousness no matter what. Chris nods, grinning as he replies to the statement about no shoes. “Yeah, is a little strange.” He looks around, not sure what he wants to do and seeing it as an oppurtunity to be polite, “Um, what would you prefer?”

Charlie Linwood isn’t so bad for a gawky teenager, but murmurs an indistinct affirmative rather than a proper awknowledgement of the compliment. Focusing on not accidentally trodding all over her feet, Charlie‘s already somewhat lacking conversational skills go directly down the drain. Without much thought, he dances a bit faster, something more modern. It’s quite a few steps before he says, “You’re rather good at this yourself.” The flush now is from dancing, and a smile threatens to actually stay on his face. It wasn’t so bad, dancing with a girl who wasn’t making moony eyes at him or giggling.

“Is there any Raspberry?” the girl asks curiously, looking over everything on the table. “Oh, look, coloricious!” She reaches over and takes a few of them, popping one into her mouth. “Oh, vees are good,” she comments, her mouth full, though she knows better than to do so under normal circumstances. “If they don’t have raspberry, then Strawberry is just fine.” Olivia glances over the table, and especially over at the punch bowl, the area around which seems to be quite crowded.

Saphia Bona smiles, whispering, “You really think so?” mere seconds before stumbling over her own feet and nearly falling. Thankfully, she manages to catch herself before Clavicle has to. “Um, with all due respect, I must disagree, Clavicle…”

Felicity Wexler gives a tremendous squeal as Gabriel stumbles back, having been so close to him that it actually nudges her a bit. The start of surprise that shakes her having been in careful mid-sip of her overly-full punch glass causing her to spill a rather fair amount of it down her front. A look of horror crosses F