Edern Fallon almost hops into the Great Hall as he comes moves in. He looks up at the Faculty table and smiles as he waves to Keelan, finally making his way to the Slytherin table.

The southern doors to the Great Hall are flung wide open. They fly outward, ready to crash into the wall, only to stop suddenly just before impact. Through this opening strides Professor Gerald Rathe, with an untidy line of first-year students following behind. Although he travels at what is for him a casual saunter, him long legs still eat up the distance rapidly. Arriving at the front of the room, he is forced to pause for a moment to make sure that the first years catch up, and indicates to them that they should stand in a line behind him.

Christopher Hobbs blinks as he enters the large hall, wide eyes greedily taking in all of the details of the room. A broad but nervous grin stretches across his face as he walks in line after Professor Rathe.

Gilroy Hollister trails Professor Rathe into the Hall, grey eyes making a wide sweep of the faces assembled before being pulled in by the ceiling. He speaks a vague syllable before remembering to stay silent, and instead nudges Mariska and points upward at the artificial night sky.

The heat, light and sound almost bowls Adelaide over, thanks to the long train journey and dark boat ride. As the doors open, she shuffles along with her fellow first years, putting on a face of not a care in the world, even though she knows that everyone in the hall is going to be looking at them. It’s not at all what she expected, but her brother had warned her that the sorting is different for everyone, and as undescribable for each.

Silas follows Professor Rathe into the Great Hall and gapes at the sight. He didn’t know what to expect, but he sure hadn’t expected such an extravagant sight! This was even more impressive than the banquet hall at Vicaris Hall! So many people… watching them get sorted. Silas tries to steel his nerves, but finds such a task hard to do here.

Walking into the great hall with the rest of the unsorted students Tommy‘s eyes immediatly look up to the enchanted roof and the first words out of his mouth are “Wow! Look at that.” And then they move to take in the rest of the hall, wide with wonder and a grin scrawled over his face.

Mariska Moore enters the great hall with the other unsorted students. A quick look around reveals the rest of the student body. With a slight gulp she looks to either side, finding Gilroy to one she grins and remains silent. At Gil’s nuding Mariska looks up, and her eyes widen more than they were before, if that’s possible.

(Faculty) Having sat quietly for a very long time, Astra does startle a little as the door flies open. Muttering to herself with an eyeroll “And I’m told that my entrances are dramatic?” Casting a sidelong glance at Darius, she smirks but goes back to her usual silence pre-Sorting.

(Faculty) Darius nods to Astra and immediately quips, low and quiet, “Well, now we know where you get it from.” He studiously avoids her gaze after he says that.

A dark skinned, curly-haired boy of eleven moves along after Gerald with his head held steady and his shoulders squared back. Theodore de Alquimia is nervous, but other than a paleness to his face, it does not show. He moves with the unconcious grace of someone subjected to many ettiquette lessons, and tries to control his urge to look around. Noticing others looking up, however, he chances a peek. And then stands, entranced. A good thing he is already where he needs to be, or he’d be left gawking at the doors while everyone else followed Gerald.

Her eyes widening as she enters the great hall, Seraphina seems to trail a bit momentarily in the entrance. She tugs on the sleeves of her robes, as if doing so will take the nervousness away and she pauses momentarily. Once she realizes that the group is leaving without her up to the front, she trots along, catching up and then stopping at the front once they get there.

Jack Wexler follows the group in, looking at the hall with slightly wide eyes. He’d quite suddenly wished he’d not given his last chocolate frog to Seraphina on the boats, as his hands were fidgeting in his pockets nervously for something to shove in to his mouth.

(Faculty) Isolde gives a soft snicker at Astra’s mutter and resettles herself, also startled at the entrance. She sizes up the first years as they file in, opens her mouth to speak, then closes it again. Instead, she smiles serenely, her green eyes twinkling with anticipation.

Following Gerald into the hall beside her cousin, Vashti looks around the room at the already sorted students. She isn’t really nervous per se, but does want desperately to be sorted. It will complete the experience. It will mean she really belongs and her invitation wasn’t sent to her by accident.

Hannah walks into the Great Hall, dazzled by the impressions that are overwhelming her immediately. All those new faces and the magic in the atmosphere. “What a nice place to be.” she thinks for herself. It’s so beautiful. Intimidating, but beautiful.

(Faculty) Looking a bit exhausted from her own little trip Phoebe nearly flops down in her chair. “Sorry Im late everyone. I had to avoid ferry the children and explain how a squid is different than a squib. Phoebe chuckles softly and pours herself something warm to drink. “I do hope the children don’t catch cold from being out on the lake like that.

Gerald Rathe steps off to the back of the Hall briefly, returning with a shabby old hat in one hand, and a stool in the other. He carries the hat gingerly, as if it were very fragile, and places it softly on the stool at the front of the room. This done, he steps back from the hat the front of the first-year students, and watches. The hat sits still on the stool for a moment, and then with a little jerk, a tear across the brim opens wide like a mouth!

(Faculty) Melvina chuckles in regards to Astra’s comment, taking a sip of her tea. She passes a shrewd, quiet gaze across the entering first years, but says nothing as the hat begins to regail the hall with it’s song. “Poetic this year,” she notes, more to herself than for anyone else’s benefit.

Gilroy Hollister watches the Hat intently as it sings, corners of his lips twitching as he takes in each word as if the Hat were a professor in itself. When the words finish, he taps his fingers together in tentative applause, uncertain on whether or not such accolades are meant to follow the Hat’s recitation.

Leaning over to Hannah with her nose wrinkled, Vashti comments in a whisper, “That has to be the oddest thing I’ve ever seen. A singing hat? What’s next?”

“It talked!” Jack yelps in a thick New York accent, his green eyes wide as they dart to the stool where the old, patchy hat was placed. “That hat just talked! Is it supposed to do that?”

Christopher Hobbs blinks, eyes widened yet again with wonder and amusement. He whistles quietly in awe, but says nothing…yet.

Her heart was beating so fast, that Adelaide gripped her cousin’s hand, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh…”

Adrian Skye blinks, and can do nothing but stare apprehensively at the talking Hat for a few seconds. “Ade…” he whispers. “They’re letting… a… hat… sort?”

Hannah‘s eyes widen as the hat begins to sing. Of course it’s only another magic thing she never heard of before, but that exactly is what impresses her so much right now. “That thing is going to decide in which house we’ll be in? Oh lordy…”

(Faculty) Keelan Walsh folds her hands across her lap, eyes flickering from the unsorted students to those already at their House tables, both to spy those who misbehave and to occasionally smile as a favored student catches her eye. So, quite seldom then.

“Don’t your hats talk?” Tommy teases Jack with a grin before looking back over to the hat itself. The little boy looks quite pleased to even be at Hogwarts let alone to have heard the hat’s song.

“This is it, this is it!” Melissa squeezed Adelaide’s hand excitedly.

Gerald Rathe gives the first years a sharp unapproving glance in response to their chatter.

“Sure, why not?” Silas whispers to Jack, “your chocolate frogs jumped, didn’t they? Why shouldn’t enchanted hats talk?” Silas masks his surprise as well as he can, as it’s not every day one encounters a talking hat.

Stepping up, Gerald Rathe produces a long scroll from within his cloak, and unfurls it. Addressing the first years, he says, “After I read your name, you will put on the hat, sit on the stool to be sorted.” Glancing at the list, he absentmindedly cracks his knuckles in his left hand. “Adams, Adelaide!”

After a long, long wait, the big event was finally here, and Adelaide couldn’t have been more petrified if she tried. Not that she showed it. Inside she was sure her stomach was going to shake all the way down to her feet, and she could barely speak for fear of squeaking with excitement and looking ridiculous. Then, her heart shot up to her throat as she heard the unmistakeable call of her name. With a little mental nudge she walked up to the stool, sitting down on it, hat on head, and shooting everyone who was watching her one of the hugest smiles, because for the next seven years, Hogwarts would be her home.

(Faculty) Selene Hathaway leans forward a bit as the line of students parade in. There’s a sparkle in her eyes, a look of excitement as her gaze travels over each student as she slowly turns her cup in her hand. Slowly her lips curl into a grin as she hat begins its song and she settles back in her chair to watch the sorting.

That was fair point, actually, that Silas had made. Jack couldn’t deny it. Still, he’d have felt better about the whole thing if he could chew on something.

“Thank you.” Adelaide murmurs as her house is called, and her small form darts off the stool, all but flying towards them all, with a cheerful little wave, having regained all of her energy and excitement. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.” She quips.

(Faculty) Grinning from her place at the faculty table, Avery nods as her house recieves one more charge. “First of the year!” she says cheerfully.

Gerald Rathe continues to read down the list, as the Sorting continues. Atwell, Otto gets sorted into Ravenclaw, and after that, Barclay, Kieran goes to Hufflepuff. Looking back to the line of students, Professor Rathe calls on “Brooke, Melissa!”

(Faculty) Though it would be unseemly for a supposedly neutral teacher to take pleasure in the same thing Avery did, he likewise has a firm grin at his old house getting the first sorted student of the year.

Upon hearing her name being called, Melissa steps out of the crowd of first years. A huge smile is displayed on her face as she looks around. She is aware of the people watching her, and this makes her slightly nervous. The nervousness is hidden by the excitement she feels. She walks forward to the stool in her usual frolic way, her hair flowing behind her, and she sits down and puts on the hat, excitedly. This is it. The moment.

(Faculty) Though it would be unseemly for a supposedly neutral teacher to take pleasure in the same thing Avery did, Darius likewise has a firm grin at his old house getting the first sorted student of the year.

(Faculty) Melvina Prichard grins along with Avery, quite in spite of herself. Even after all these years, old Bert was still a Gryffindor at heart. She applauds politely for Miss Adams before adding some sugar to her tea.

(Faculty) Keelan Walsh raises an eyebrow but applauds politely each time the Hat calls out a name. Certainly Slytherin would get some of them. She shifts a bit, suddenly, her eyebrows coming down together. The hands on her lap seem to fidget a bit, somewhat out of character for the woman.

(Faculty) Isolde applauds with each new sorting, and each Hufflepuff addition gets an extra grin. “Moving right along, aren’t they?” she says to no one in particular, cheerful but hushed.

Andrew Cartwright cheers loudly!

The sorting hat shouts her house and Melissa gets up, happily running to her table, nearly tripping as she hurries down the steps. She manages to keep her balance and simply grins as she sits down with her fellow housemates.

Gerald Rathe continues reading down the list of names, as Elladora Burke is sorted into Ravenclaw, and Ryskim Calborn becomes a Slytherin. Professor Rathe frowns and pauses momentarily before calling, “Darian, Tommy!”

When his name is called Tommy hurries to take the hat and sit himself upon the stool his face alight with pride that he’s finally made it to the school. Placing the hat on his head it sinks over his eyes and ears looking quite comical. His hands fold into his lap neatly and his body shakes in anticipation of what will come next as he waits patiently.

(Faculty) “They always do, dear,” Melvina says, quietly, watching the unsorted with a tender expression. “And before you know it, they’ll all be graduating, and soon after will have become our collogues and bosses. It’s a wonderous thing, isn’t it?”

Hopping from the barstool and removing the hat Tommy excitedly runs to join the Slytherin table nearly tripping in the progress. He happily takes his seat amongst them cheering with the other first years he knew who made it there as well.

(Faculty) There’s been no noticeable change on Astra‘s face during the sorting. She’s barely stirred in her seat other than to nod at one child’s placement or another. But the moment Tommy’s name is called she frowns and deeper still when the boy is placed into her House.

Gerald Rathe silently watches Tommy take his seat with the Slytherin, and then looks back to his list. He calls on, “de Alquimia, Teddy!”

Teddy de Alquimia has been paying attention to the names called out, but hearing his own is still a surprise. Practiced grace masks his nervousness as he moves up to the stool, and he places the hat upon his head with a tenative smile to the line of Professors at their table. Though the Sorting Hat does not engulf his head, the brim is wide, and those close enough can only see the boy’s mouth pressing together thoughtfully as his time with the Hat progresses.

(Faculty) Selene Hathaway grins a little more as the hat announces Slytherin members, but she seems to be enjoying the ceremony on the whole. She takes a sip from her cup and glances down her own table briefly before settling back in to watch the rest of the sorting. Her eyes do stray towards the Slytherin table from time to time and in those moments her gaze looks almost calculating.

Jack Wexler watches quietly as first year after first year approaches the stool and the brown, heavily patched felt hat that sits on top it. His initial shock has subsided, replaced by a certain curiousity as he notes that several of his would-be classmates have been subjected to the cap and come away safely.

Teddy de Alquimia looks more nervous than ever as he removes the Hat and returns it to the stool. With a slight bow–yes, really–at Gerald, he moves out of the way of the next person to be Sorted and toward the appropriate table. Well, here’s hoping it’s the appropriate table. What was that order again?

(Faculty) Watching bemusedly as each student is sorted Phoebe could not help nut notice that both the Rathes seemed to twitch just a bit at the mention of the Darian boy’s house. Taking another swig she leans nearer to Astra. “Somthing the matter Professor Rathe?” Being unaware of the history behind Tommy’s name poor Phoebe is completely ignorant as to why they both reacted in such a way.

Shaking his head after Teddy, Gerald Rathe goes back to the task at hand. After the hat sorts Kaiah DeFuenta into Hufflepuff, Gerald continues down the list to call on “Forsyth, Hannah!”

Hannah Forsyth winces, as she gets taken by surprise hearing her name resounding in the vast hall and feeling all the school’s eyes fixed on her. Vashti was in her vicinity all the time during the trip, but now she has to take those last steps alone. What if she ends up alone in one of the four houses, apart from her cousins? “Think positive…” she mutters under her breath, clutching her left arm with her right hand and takes a first step towards the chair. Hesitating for a moment, she looks back to Vashti and Jezebel a last time before marching straight to the front and picking up the Sorting Hat. Hannah turns around, flops onto the stool and puts on the hat harshly, waiting for something to happen.

(Faculty) Scowling in a rather horrid fashion, Astra turns her head away from the Sorting just long enough to take her eyes off the latest child. “Darian is a foul name with foul blood. That’s all I have to say on the matter.” “I’ll be keeping my eye on *that* one.”

(Faculty) Melvina casts a brief glance to Astra after setting down her teacup, but otherwise says nothing. Her features remaining quiet, even serious. After a moment, however, of regarding her Deputy Headmistress, she turns her gaze back to the Sorting.

(Faculty) Bites her lip at Phoebe‘s reaction as it was quite unexpected. “Forgive me, I …. didn’t mean anything Astra.” Instead of saying anything more Phoebe turns her attention back to the sorting slowly nursing on whatever it was she put in her glass. Her eyes do stray though to Tommy and then to her own son sitting at the Hufflepuff table.

Hannah slowly gets up, putting the hat back to its original place on the stool, then leaps towards the Gryffindor table as relief overcomes her. “Hey, I made it!” she greets her new housemates and sits down. Now it’s only about her cousins following her to Gryffindor.

Gerald Rathe reads on, his voice becoming patterned and rhythmic with the repetitious nature of his task. He calls on “Greer, Sophie,” who is sorted into Gryffindor, and then comes to “Hobbs, Christopher!”

Christopher Hobbs jumps nervously as the odd hat ominously calls out his name, and nods reassuringly to himself as he walks slowly forward to the front of the room, his steps upon the slate floor echoing in the ensuing silence. His heart beats so strongly in his chest that he idly wonders if others can hear it themselves. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he gingerly places the old hat upon his head and sits slowly down upon the stool. His eyes rotate to stare directly at the hat itself as if worried he might hurt it–or vice versa.

Next, Gerald Rathe recites “Hollister, Gilroy!”

(Faculty) Keelan Walsh doesn’t turn so much as incline her head toward Astra and can’t help but add in an even tone, “Surely the child can’t be blamed for his parentage, however horrible?” It isn’t a reprimand so much as an observation, as she too, follows Tommy’s progress to the Slytherin table. “In any case,” a tiny smile surfaces, “you’re in an excellent position to keep an eye on him, aren’t you?” She frowns and shifts again, suddenly, attention back on the sorting process.

For all his quivering excitement from the train ride through the current scene in the Great Hall, Gilroy Hollister grows briefly still at the call of his name. He squares his shoulders and stretches his arms out before him. Then, with slow deliberate steps and twitchy anxious fingers, Gilroy treads to the front of everyone’s attention, and after one wide eyed look back at everyone, he carefully sits on the stool, lifts the Hat, and looks inside before placing it on his head.

Christopher Hobbs exhales forcefully, surprising himself; he didn’t realize that he had been holding his breath the whole time. He stands up from the stool after removing the Sorting Hat, a wave of joy passing over him. He offers a wave to his fellow first-year friends with a huge grin spreading rapidly across his face once again. All of the anxiety he had felt is gone, replaced with giddy excitement. Christopher walks over to his new House table, offering a friendly wave to the others already seated there.

(Faculty) Isolde‘s attention wanders down the table to Astra and Phoebe, but she keeps her tongue. Tommy gets a closer look, but her attention is soon diverted to the newly named Hufflepuffs, and soon she’s back to smiling, nodding and applauding. After a while she comment quietly, “They seem to be a fairly happy bunch, these new first years. Always nice to see. Good attitudes to go with that, I hope.”

(Faculty) “I do hope they are as well behaved the whole year as they were on the boat ride.” Phoebe quips gently seemingly having forgot all about the Slytherin boy. “I didn’t have a single problem with any of them. Though I think a few were tempted to get a closer look at the squid.” “I told them in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t be happy if I had to jump in the lake after them.”

Gilroy Hollister visibly jolts as the hat shouts the name of his new house, though for the surprise of volume and decision in his eyes, he cannot help but grin as he removes the hat and makes his way to the Ravenclaw bench. “Guess mum was right about me being too much like dad sometimes,” he murmurs to himself as his eyes skim his new classmates.

The list continues, as Gerald Rathe reads on, and “Kana, Allgermein” goes into Hufflepuff, followed by “Kapoor, Rajindar” who is sorted into Ravenclaw, and then “Kemys, Jezebel” winds up in Gryffindor. Next, Gerald declares: “Kemys, Vashti!”

(Faculty) Melvina exhales a small, puffed, genuinely amused laugh about that as she sets her elbows up on the table and steeples her fringers together in front her lips.

Vashti applauds, almost bored, as her cousin Jezebel is placed into Gryffindor. If she had to be honest, the hat’s song did little to explain exactly what being in Gryffindor really means. She shrugs. Knowing her name was coming, of course, Vashti Kemys stands up and makes her way over to the hat. She practiced this walk earlier this week, back home in her room. It’s a bit shakier now than it was then, but she finally arrives and takes a seat on the stool. As the hat is lowered onto her head, she listens carefully.

Glad inside that she’s with both her cousins in Gryffindor, her quarrel with Jezebel is forgotten as she scampers excitedly to the red-washed table. “See, I can make Gryffindor too!” she says in triumph before sitting down.

Glad inside that she’s with both her cousins in Gryffindor, her quarrel with Jezebel is forgotten as Vashti scampers excitedly to the red-washed table. “See, I can make Gryffindor too!” she says in triumph before sitting down.

Mores names come from the scroll in Gerald‘s hands. Aedan Llewellyn becomes a Hufflepuff, Raurin Macbeth is sorted into Slytherin, the Hat chooses to place Leith MacLeod in Hufflepuff and Brian Maloney is sent to Gryffindor. The next name called is “Moore, Mariska!”

Mariska Moore blinks slightly as her name is called and steps forward. Quietly, and nervously, she makes her way to the stool, wherein she promptly sits and settles the hat atop her head. Due to the size of her head, the hat successfully manages to cover most of it. Mariska, now settled, places her hands in her lap and awaits the hat’s decision.

Mariska Moore removes the Sorting Hat from her head and looks around. Quickly the girl spots her house table and makes her way towards it, promptly taking her seat once she reaches Slytherin table.

Reading on, Gerald Rathe comes to “O’Bannon, Albert,” “Perelli, Phoenix” and “Pheras, Kiyan,” all of whom are sorted, one after the other, into Hufflepuff. With an apprehensive glance at the swelling Hufflepuff table, Gerald calls on “Pryor, Seraphina!”

Seraphina has seen a group of people get sorted now, and it doesn’t seem so frightening to the girl. After all, nobody else appears to have been injured. She pauses, however, before stepping up to the hat, glancing backward at those around her, waiting yet to be sorted. It is moments like these that Sera realizes she’s a lonely child, but given that the hat is waiting for her, she doesn’t have the time to dawdle. Quickly she hops up to the stool and plunks the hat down on her head.

Hopping up quickly, Seraphina breathes in deeply. That wasn’t so painful! She quickly walks over to her designated table, joining her housemates quietly with merely a semblance of a nod toward them.

After the Hat sorts Haley Renalds into Ravenclaw, Gerald Rathe comes to the next name: “Skye, Adrian!”

Adrian Skye takes a last deep breath and mutters to himself, “I can do it.” Glancing one last time to his friends already sitting at their various tables, he starts. As Adrian is walking towards the Hat, his foot catches the edge of his robe, and he trips. Although he is able to regain his balance quickly, there are some sniggers amongst the crowd. Adrian, however, magnificently keeps a straight and stoic face, ignoring everything until he has finally arrived at the stool. With shaking fingers, Adrian removes the hat from the stool, sits, and puts the Hat on, feeling the stares of so many, too many eyes on him.

Adrian‘s face is still stoic, and he is unmoving for a second. Slowly and daintily, he removes the Hat, putting it back on the seat, face still a blank. As he stands up, a slow grin begins to dance across his face. He walks away from the stool silently, but the glowing look on his face tells all of his emotions. When he reaches the table of Gryffindor, his face absolutely explodes with joy as he gives an enormous hug to his best friend Adelaide, his Housemate for the next seven years to come.

The Sorting continues, with more and more of the scroll unfurling as the names are called. “Stufflebeam, Graham” goes into Ravenclaw, while “Torpenhow, Marius” and “Trumble, Aemele” end up in Slytherin. After “Vertigonte, Claude” is sorted into Hufflepuff, Gerald calls on, “Vicaris, Silas!”

At hearing his name called, Silas suddenly tenses up. His nerves start to fail him as he walks forward to the stool, his mind focused hard on not stumbling or tripping on the way there. Once there, he turns around and slowly climbs backwards onto the stool, staring with wide eyes at the population of the Great Hall. The Sorting Hat is placed upon his head, and he glances up at the brim as he waits for something to happen.

Somewhat gratified by the exclamation of the Sorting Hat, Silas pulls it roughly from his head and hops off the stool, depositing it on the vacant seat before walking quickly to his table. The grinning fool takes a seat at a vacant opening and looks at the few left in line to see where they get sorted.

Gerald Rathe intones, “Walker, Abe!” and the named student is sorted into Ravenclaw. Looking at the last name on the scroll, Gerald says, “Wexler, Jack!”

Jack takes a deep breath as his name is called; the curse of his surname and it’s place at the end of the alphabet an occassional boone, as well. He’d plenty of time to steel his resolve and gathering his wits, and now that his name had been called, he was ready… or at least he thought. His first step toward the stool on which sat the brown, talking hat is a wobbly one, and he very nearly loses his balance and collapses. It’s only with a fair amount of arm-flailing and a pinch of luck that he manages to fetch his footing and keep himself upright. His following steps are more careful as he pulls the flat-cap from his head and makes his way to the stool, clambering on to it and placing the Sorting Hat carefully on to his head as if he might hurt it somehow.

Blinking, Jack pulls the hat off slowly – again, careful, as if he might somehow hurt it – and sets it back on the stool before making his way to the Gryffindor table.

Looking a little deflated and relieved, at the same time, Gerald Rathe furls the scroll with the names of the first years on it, and returns it to his cloak. He picks up the hat with same care shown earlier, and the stool, returning them to their original place. Finally, with a somber expression, his takes his seat at the faculty table with a nod to his neighbours there.

(Faculty) Gerald Rathe sits upright, but a slight droop to his shoulders is still evident. “I swear that this gets longer every year.”

Melvina Prichard rises with purpose from the faculty table once the ritual of Sorting has concluded, lifting a nimble, long-fingered hand in a suggestive to beckon silence from the students massed in the hall. “Thank you, Professor Rathe. Excuse me, quiet please — yes, that includes you, Mister Markham,” she says in a strong tone, ever-laced with a hint of amusement. The ghost of a grin touches her lips as she looks over the wealth of her school.

(Faculty) Laughing quietly to herself at her father’s comment, Astra quirks a sharp little grin and turns to him. “Nah, you’re just getting older old man.”

“Greetings and salutations, everyone,” Melvina says, her voice effortlessly floating across the Great Hall at a comfortable volume. “Welcome to your school year nineteen hundred and thirty one! I trust that all of you enjoyed your summer vacation. Some of you will of course remember me, while for others this will be our introduction; my name is Melvina Prichard and I am Headmistress of Hogwarts school. For intensely personal reasons I have spent the last few years on sabbatical away from our majestic island and have only recently been able to return to its fair shores. Toward both staff and students, I pray that my departure has not left a rift between us, nor that you find my return unsettling. I value the friendships I’ve made in this magical place and the opportunity to see each of you grow in to the dreams you have of yourselves. While I can not ask you to forgive me or my previous and hasty departure, I do ask that you believe it was both necessary and carefully thought out; that you accept that I left you in the very best of hands. With that said, I’d like you all to stand and applaud Professor Astra Rathe, who has been performing the role of Headmistress in my absence and has most graciously deigned to resume her previous duties as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, head of Slytherin house and Deputy Headmistress, as well as Professor Keelan Walsh, and all other staff and faculty members of Hogwarts who pulled together to fill the holes and make the changes required by my egress and homecoming.” Melvina turns then to face the rest of the faculty table and leads the school in what she hopes will be a loud, rousing and heartfelt symphony of cheer for her most esteemed colleagues.

After a long few moments of leading the cheer, Melvina turns again to face the assembled student body and lifts her hand once more; beckoning for silence and motioning the students back in to their seats. “Thank you, everyone.”

“Pressing on, I’ve some beginning of term announcements to make.” Clearing her throat, the Headmistress pulls a pair of spectacles the waist pocket of her emerald robe and rests them on the bridge of her hooked nose. She then reaches with her right hand in to the cuff of her left sleeve and withdraws an aged cherry wand which she gives a casual flick and conjures a scroll of parchment which floats unassisted in the air several inches above her head. “All the usual suspects, of course,” she says simply as the scroll unrolls itself horizontally, expanding most of the length of the faculty table. “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–” As she begins to speak, delicately written, calligraphic letters glide across the floating parchment from the left to right like ticker tape – PROHIBITED ITEMS AND ACTIVITIES – and then begins to mirror her words as she continues, “Spellwork outside of the classroom, rough play, pranks, hijinxs, dungbombs, Whimple’s Pimple Powder..” With each item listed the speed on which the words dance across the parchment grows quicker and quicker still until they become little more than a seemingly endless blur of black cursive. “As you can see, the list quite extensive. Be certain to check it.”

Melvina gives another vague flick of her wand and the hovering scroll rolls itself up, tumbles twice and then vanishes in a small puff of mauve-colored smoke. “Of course, 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 certainly forget that pesky rule. It just slips out, squeezed away from the building pressure of all that knowledge our fine professors work so hard to fill your heads with.” 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 result in a substantial loss of house points as well.” Clearing her throat, Melvina pauses to take a sip of pumpkin juice before continuing. “Naturally, we ask that you respect and defer to your prefects. I’d also like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Head Girl, Oliver Cloverwood and Briony Wexler respectively. Mister Cloverwood and Miss Wexler, please stand.” She again leads the school in a round of applause.

Briony Wexler gasps as it’s announced that she is head girl, and she beams, waving enthusiastically to everyone in the room before she plops back down in her seat, beaming quite excitedly. Head Girl!

“Well done, Head Boy, Head Girl,” the Headmistress says, sincerely. “On to faculty. There are many exciting changes in Hogwarts faculty this year; as mentioned before Professor Astra Rathe will be returning to post as Defense Against the Dark Arts lead, head of Slytherin house and Deputy Headmistress. I’d personally like to thank Professor Walsh for heading up Slytherin house during Professor Rathe’s tenure as Headmistress, and Professor Gerald Rathe for stepping up to cover Defense.” She turns briefly to face Keelan and Gerald, offering then a modest but genuine applause before facing the Great Hall once again. “Professor Gerald Rathe will be taking over our Charms department. I’d like to introduce you all to our new Professor of Transfiguration, Selene Hathaway.” With her right hand she motions to Professor Hathaway, then begins another round of brief, polite round of applause. “And I would like to welcome back to the Hogwarts family Professor of Arithmancy, Isolde Morgan, and Potions Master, Professor Adalphous Fallon.” Again she applauds, nodding to each of the returning Professor in turn.

“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. As some you know, I am a firm believer in tradition; both in the keeping of it, and the occasional breaking. Thus, I announce the return of what I hope will become one of many long-standing Hogwarts traditions; the third Barefoot Social.” An almost devilish 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 returning for yet 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 as she looks out at her young crowd. She is clearly terribly proud of herself. “As this is the daughter of tradition, we shall follow the precedent set by events of year’s prior — 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, the Valentine’s Soiree, Career Day, and a handful of other special events the Deputy Headmistress and 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.

(Faculty) “Well, that was fun,” Melvina says simply, taking up her fork and placing some of the turkey that had just materialized in front of her on to her plate.

(Faculty) “Admit it, Melvina. You just took this job to create your own social life,” Darius quips, also happily tucking into the food that has appeared in front of him. “How many school events are you planning on us running, now?”

(Faculty) Melvina can’t help but grin at Darius’ (not-entirely untrue) cheek. “A half-dozen or so, that may change. Not all of them are entirely my fault, I might add. You’ll need to confront my deputy on grounds of a few.”

(Faculty) Gerald Rathe leans forward on one elbow, with furrowed brow. He raises an eyebrow at Astra at Melvina’s comment, but addresses Melvina. “Tell me, Headmistress, does one actually attend this “Barefoot Social” without shoes?”

(Faculty) “No, Gerald. It’s a metaphor for the souless existence that is life in Scotland.” Darius declares, deadpan.

(Faculty) Melvina simply grins her response, a rather mischevious twinkle in her eye.

(Faculty) “I think I might have to be ill if the Social is going to happen underwater again.” “In fact, I may have to be sick on general principle.” Taking up her goblet for the first time during the whole evening, Astra presses it to her lips and takes a drink. “Much as it’s a wonderful concept,” there is no smile, “I’m afraid some of us,” but Gerald’s comment catches her and she snorts in derision at the affair. “Shoeless, yes.” “May as well try to fit in with the peasants.”

(Faculty) Gerald Rathe looks rather abruptly to Darius, staring at him for a beat with a blank expression, then breaks into an open laugh. Shaking his head, he says, “Shoeless or not, it’s an entertaining metaphor.” “Ah, Astra, I can see that you’re still the life of any party.” Here he winks at his daughter, smirking.

(Faculty) “Well, it does offer so many easy conversation starters,” Isolde says as she pours herself a glass of wine. “Such as, ‘My goodness, but you have big feet,’ or perhaps, ‘I suppose you’re still waiting to fill those shoes of yours.’” She sips at the wine, then helps herself to mashed potatoes.

(Faculty) “Got it from you old man.” Not at all masking the bitterness, Astra takes another drink of the pumpkin juice without making so much as a face. “Maybe I can say that I’m trying to fill your footsteps, but I’d be afraid of catching some worm or another if I walked where you did.” Turning her head away from Gerald, she stifles a yawn before playing with the food on her plate. Pushing some beans around with a fork, she shrugs to herself.

(Faculty) Melvina watches Astra with a quiet, fond sort of smile; her smirk having faded in to something more quiet, the mischief in her eyes having eased back in to seriousness. “It isn’t under the lake this year, no. Though that does remind me, in fact. Professor Fallon,” she says, turning her gaze toward Avery. “If you have some time later this evening, I’d like to discuss something with you.”

(Faculty) “Melvina, do I need to start practicing charms to make instruments float this year? Please do cue us in a bit more this time, I’m still drying out my piano from the last one.” Darius raises an eyebrow.

“Well, all, I think I shall retire for the evening. You may all, of course, stay to enjoy the wonderful meal provided for us. First years will need to be escorted to their common rooms by their prefects, but with all the catching up being done I’m sure there will be plenty of time to fill your bellies further. Again, welcome to Hogwarts. Tomorrow, we learn.” Melvina says simply, her voice filling the hall at a comfortable volume despite the need to speak over everyone else. “Sweet dreams, all,” she says, stepping down from the faculty dias. “When they find you.”

Another year begins at Hogwarts. It’s week one and the Wizo-Music students are either returning, or beginning late. As always, Matughi, the massive talking African warshield, is busy intimidating the students, but, since it’s a first class of the day, he seems rather sleepy. “FOOLISH CHIL… *yawn* CHILDREN! YOU WILL ALL BE CONQUERED BY THE …so tired… MIGHT OF THE … *yawn*” Darius Dwight has yet to appear yet, but the class is open and set up in ‘practical’ formation, desks to the side, chairs in the middle with instruments scattered around the classroom. Presumably, the teacher will be along shortly.

Looking quite svelte and tall, it appears that Nellie has grown quite a bit over the summer, and though the usual smirk is absent from her face, her sour expression seems otherwise fitting as she carries her trumpet lazily into the Wizo-music classroom. The red on her cheeks hints at either a bit too much sun, or perhaps a rather recent embarrassment. Between her freckles, it is difficult to tell which it is. The girl plops down into a set and pulls out a quill, twirling it in her fingers while she stifles a yawn and waits for the rest of the class to trickle in.

Afil Landiths walked into the Wizo-music classroom nerviously, as he stared at the Giant double bass he was supposed to be play in the class. He looked around, watching all the people play their instruments and the giant talking African war sheild, and looked slightly worried at the fact a piece of army wear was screaming its head off at the surrounding students. Afil walked up to the bass as confedintley as he could, Straightening up and smiling, whilst walking over quickly and prepareing it in his hands, to be played beautiflly along with Afil choice of music, Blues. Afil was looking forward to the class, or else he sound’t of signed up for it Decideding quickly to pluck the strings, Afil smiled at the surrounds and started to play happily

Yawning and rubbing at her eyes with one hand, Gertrude Baxtor makes another sleepy student to enter the room. Almost as soon as she enters the room, she seems to realise what she’s doing, even in her sleepy state, and quickly lowers her hand from her eye to her mouth as she yawns again, and draws herself up into a more formal, refined carriage than the sleepy drag she had lazily adopted on the way there. At least her robes are straight and her hair is in good condition. She never would have left the common room otherwise. Peering about the room, she seems too dazed to offer much more than a lazy smirk, though perhaps this will have the dual affect of looking like she doesn’t need to expend extra energy on being superior. Perhaps.

Coming behind a long string of students, and walking slowly, as if hesitating, David makes his way into the classroom. He stands there in the way, watching the other students as they take their seat, and finally chooses to take his own, on the second row, as usual. It is a strange feeling for David, and he hasn’t felt so awkward since his first or second year. Why did he decide to join the Wizo-Music class in his fourth year, instead of doing it at the beginning of the third like everybody else? Surely, the older students would look at him curiously, and David dislikes this. The boy puts his bag on the floor, and turns his head around. Should he take out a quill and some parchment? Apparently not. Some students are already playing, apparently, and David doesn’t know if he should begin to do just as them. Deciding against it, he finally waits for Professor Dwight to begin the class formally. Yes. That would probably be the best course to follow. Keep a low profile.

As the last students file into the room, Professor Darius Dwight, billowing red robes blowing out around his feet, enters from the Wizo-Music office and beaming his usual beaming smile. His only concession to the earliness of the class is a white drinking mug, filled with coffee and emblazoned with a Gryffindor shield on it. It’s been well known Professor Dwight was an old Gryffindor, and he hasn’t been shy about volunteering the fact. He nods to the class, and declares, “Good morning, students. Welcome back to Hogwarts,” and then walks over to Matughi, who is still half-heartedly shouting out threats between yawns and mutters. “Poor, poor Matughi. Your heart’s just not in it, is it today?” The shield mutters back, “Traitor to your own blood…” “Yes, yes,” The teacher retorts, and instructs the shield to keep quiet, which astonishingly it does.

“Now, students!” Darius returns his attention to the class, and declares, “Welcome back to Hogwarts! As always, it’s good to see you here. We have a few new students, and a few departed over the summer I see. Their loss. This year, we begin learning about Wizo-Music proper. So, and I know you’ve all waited a long time to hear this…” He grins impishly, “Draw your wands.”

Wand. Right. Pocket. It seems to take Gertrude a moment to fully realise what the Professor has said, though when she does, she pulls the wand from her pocket and twirls it through her fingers like a baton, sitting daintily in her selected seat and tiredly crossing her legs. Wait, wand? She looks up at Darius as she fully comprehends his words, silently questioning this apparent change of heart. She really isn’t with it this morning – as well as it being early, she looks almost as if she simply didn’t get enough sleep the previous night, and she seems to be working hard to resist the urge to rub at her eyes again.

Feeling quite relieved that she won’t be forced to try to make sensible noise out of her trumpet for once, Nellie reaches into her robes and draws her wand carefully, holding it out before her lazily. “Looks like morning still aren’t too kind to you, Trudy,” she whispers quietly to the nearby. Her usually twinkling eyes begin to get their usual sheen as her lips twist into a bit of a smirk. “Is it true that your sister’s put a love potion on the Minister’s son?”

Afil Landiths stopped plucking his Double bass and stopped smiling. Afil pulled his wand out, Left handedly put it in front of him, sighing slightly. Afil had no Idea of what was coming, but decided to smile anyway, he was happy to be here anyway, maybe he’d meet new people, or maybe he’d just enjoy playing the double bass. Whatever the reason he decided to come here for, he was here, and even if he could not remember why he did it in the first place, it didn’t matter. He gripped the wand and watched the other students do so themselfs. Afil eyed the other instruments around him, and decided that his one was the best, and smirked at this, for no apperent reason. Keeping the wand in front of himself, he waited for the next instructions.

Wait, no introductory speech? Oh, wow. Not wanting to disobey the orders of the teacher, David takes his wand out of his pocket and puts it down neatly on the table, before him. He then hesitates some more. The wand is obviously there to charm the instrument, right? Yet David‘s own instrument is still in his bag, and the boy does not know if he should put it out. As he debates the question, he takes the wand in his hands and fidgets with it, looking at the other students nervously and trying to listen to their conversations to get a cue on what to do. The few words he hears coming from the direction of that Gryffindor have nothing to do with music, though, and David quirks his eyes. A love potion? To the Minister’s son? Hmm… girls…

“Now, today we cross the boundary between music, and wizo-music. This is mostly charms work, and indeed, it will be a charm we practice today. Since you’ll be casting it on an instrument, and it’s awfully hard to play an instrument and cast charms at the same time, you’ll be working in pairs.” Darius grabs his chalk and strides to the blackboard to write up the words MOUSIKI ALLASSO on the board, as well as the pronunciation below, “MOO-see-kee al-AH-so”. As he is done, he swings back to the class, planting both hands down on his conductors lecturn and grins, “This is one of the most simple music altering charms, and it performed like this…” Drawing his wand, he points to a saxophone near him and swings his wand in a sharp horizontal motion, right-to-left, with a slight upward loop. “Mousiki allasso!” Once done, he picks up the saxophone, puts it to his lips and plays… a beautiful, heavenly harp solo.

“Ew. It is entirely possible. There is little I would put past her in her puppy-dog pursuit of that boy.” Gertrude replies, raising an eyebrow at Nellie in a lazily superior gesture, reclining in her chair and stretching out a little, though endeavoring to retain a certain polite, almost formal air to her actions. “In any case, I imagine that you would be well-versed in the effects of a love potion – surely, that would be the only way you could locate for yourself an escort to the Social.” It seems that she doesn’t quite care who she is being nasty to at this point, merely being derisive for the sake of doing so. Her attention flickers from the Gryffindor girl to the Professor quickly, though, and her eyes widen considerably as she follows the effects of the charm, offering a slighlty more sincere, even blissful, smile at the sound of the harp solo. Now that is appropriate music.

David Mildred‘s mouth falls open as he hears the result of the charm. Now that is nifty! David begins to relax as he listens to the music, forgetting his previous apprehension about coming to the class. If he could learn how to do that, then it is indeed worth having come here to that class. Waiting for the solo to finish, David prepares himself to rise his hand up in the air, as he already had a few question to ask about the potential use of the charm.

Pairs, is it? Nellie glances sideways as Gertrude makes this comment. “At least I haven’t got poodle hair. My date will be able to see my face just fine. And, I’ll let you know, that I’ve already been promised by none other than your brother that he’d go with me.” The smirk on the girl’s face widens and she turns her face to Darius to see his adeptness with the charm. It can’t be too hard, right? The girl half-heartedly makes her wand in the motion that Darius has done, though it comes across more as a circle than a sharp motion.

Afil had immedit intrest into the charm that had just been used. He heard the beautiful music and wanted to try it right away…But quickly relised he needed a partner, he looked around the room, searching for someone, He didn’t really know who to look at, due to the fact he only just joined the class. He looked around, not really bothered about the fact that no one seemed to want to work with him. Looking around with a smug look on his face, he stared at Darius trying to figure out more from this charm, and tried to do the sharp motion, which he thought he did quite well, and smiled to himself. Afil was happy to be here, just…Who was he going to work with?

The saxophone is taken away from Darius‘s lips, and the harp sound fades away. As he spots David’s hand go up, he asks, “Yes, David? Everyone, please begin pairing up. One of you should play your instrument, and the other practice your charm on the instrument while it’s playing, that way you’ll be able to observe the effects of your charm immediately. I’m not asking you to take notes, but be observant and don’t just mess around — Learn! If you need any help, your book ‘Music by Magic’ has pointers.” Darius then listens for David’s question while the class starts getting ready.

“We all make mistakes,” Gertrude replies, almost venemously, eying Nellie in annoyance. It is evident from her tone that the one making the mistake is most certainly her brother, in sinking so low as to accompany the Gryffindor girl. She hesitates for a moment, uncertain of what to add; oh, gosh, she needs a date, now, doesn’t she? How would it look if she didn’t have a date, but Nellie did? “Of course, I already have an escort,” she lies after a moment, turning to face the Gryffindor fully. It seems that she is taking for granted that they will be paired up, if only so they can finish their argument. “But I do consider it to be uncouth to banter such information around without the consent of the other party.”

Putting his hand down as Professor Dwight acknowledges his question, David begins clears his throat. “I… uh… well, you basically charmed your instrument using the incantation Mousiki Alasso but I wondered if it was possible to choose the sound that the instrument will produce, or if it only comes as a… well, as a complete surprise.” David says, grinning at the end of the question. “And I haven’t anybody to practice with… looks like we are in an odd number.” he adds, sheepishly.

“Ah, yes! Class!” Darius stops the class, “David has a good point here, and one I forgot to mention. Focus on the type of instrument you want to produce — Mousiki allasso can produce almost any instrumental sound, but it’s easiest to choose similar types. Easier to make a guitar sound like a violin than the drums sound like flutes. There’s no major change in the incantation or wand motion, simply in intent!” Turning back to David, he grins, “Indeed, we are. I shall play, and let you practice.” He picks up a guitar and sits down, ready to play. “Ready when you are, David.”

“Oh, right, that’s such a lie, Gertie Baxtor,” the girl scoffs and grins. “The only reason you would want to withhold that information is if you’re ashamed to have asked the person, or else if you don’t have one. It’s alright, I don’t expect everyone will have gotten asked already. I’m sure you can find someone. Perhaps that nice third year, the boy I went with last year! Although, I believe he’s dead gone on Felicity Wexler.” Nellie Caldwell pauses a moment and then turns to Gertrude with the sweetest expression she can manage. “You’ll be my partner, of course.” This is not stated as a question.

Oh, darn it, now Gertrude has to think of someone she could have possibly asked that possibly doesn’t have a date yet. “Oh, hardly.” She scoffs in turn, inspecting her fingernails as she tries to think of someone. Oh, but the only boys who would be without dates so far are so uncouth… “Matthew Cowper, if you simply must know.” She looks as though she regrets having chosen that name already, looking almost ill for a moment. Why did she have to choose his name? He has got to be one of the worst! Still, she forces a smile, almost sickly sweet and entirely insincere, and sighs that little bit too dramatically. “I almost regret having asked him, for he can be terribly, uh, exhuberant at times, but he is very good-looking and he does come from a very good family.” Does he? Well, she wouldn’t know. He’s related to a Professor or something, right? Oh, right, magic. She waves her wand vaguely, though without any obvious intent to do anything.

Nodding slightly, David rummages through his bag and takes out a penny whistle. This is the instrument he plays, perhaps not like a virtuoso, but reasonably well enough so that Professor Dwight didn’t refuse him coming to the class a year later after the other students. Trying to find some comfort in that idea, he walks forward towards the teacher, his whistle and wand in hand. “I suppose I have to warm it up a bit…” before he says, putting the head of the whistle under his armpit for it to come up to a better temperature. “I might as well start with the charm, right? How can I actually choose the sound of the instrument?” he says, as he picks up his wand and prepares himself to say the incantation out loud.

“No, no.” Darius waves his hand. “Keep your whistle in your pocket, David. Focus on your wandwork today. If you want to practice your musicianship, that is good, but come see me privately for that. This year, our focus is wandwork. Now, go on and try to affect my guitar. Surprise me with what I start playing.” He begins playing a somewhat latino style of guitar playing, although it’s really more American jazz with a slight hint of influence than true flamenco guitar.

“Handsome? Well, I suppose we’re all allowed different taste,” the girl tells her comrade. “You go first with the violin. I’m not up to the trumpet just yet.” Holding her wand out, Nellie appears ready — at least in appearance — to perform the charm at any moment. “So, are you really going with him, then? I’m sure even you could have done better.” This is said in the most chirpy voice the girl can manage, though the smirk on her face is perhaps a bit telling of her true meaning.

“Okay…” David says, putting the whistle back in a pocket of his school robe. He then raises his wand, trying to mimic the movement of Professor Dwight’s wand, a few minutes before, and he mutters the incantation. “Mousiki Alasso!” The result of the charm follows immediately, but it is not really what David would have liked to hear. Suddenly, Darius’ guitar makes strange noises, as if it were completely out of tune. “Er…” says David. “Finite Incantatum!” Fortunately, this one works. “Sorry about that…” he says. “Can I try again?”

Why, of all names to have possibly occurred to her, did Gertrude have to say ‘Matthew Cowper’? There are dozens of better boys in the school. Almost every boy in the school, in fact. Cheeks flushed slightly pink, she picks up the violin and positions it under her chin, though she does not begin playing yet. “In any case,” she hastily changes the subject, clearing her throat quietly and politely, “Have you heard anything of who anyone else is going with, on that note?” If nothing else, there is no way that Gertrude is going to allow the subject of the Social to be left at her fictional date with Matthew.

Darius Dwight trips his fingers a little bit as the guitar goes massively out of tune, but grins and continues playing as the charm is negated expertly, “Of course, David. I’m not expecting anyone to get this charm right today. Practice makes perfect.”

“Mousiki Alasso,” Nellie Caldwell states rather apathetically and shrugs. “Well, I assume your sister will monopolize the Minister’s son again, as usual. Poor boy. I do wonder at Nellie Caldwell, though. She asked Albert Bryce, you know, that Hufflepuff boy? She asked him to last year’s social, but she went with some sixth year to the ball. I don’t know who could stand her. I can’t, myself.” As if Nellie has had much interaction with the girl. “Who has your sister asked? I’m sure your brother could fix her up with one of his chums if she asked him nicely. He seems like an amiable fellow.”

“Alright.” says David, nodding at Professor Dwight. He raises his wand once again, and as he is about to cast the charm a second time, he turns his head to observe the other students, hearing some rather obvious chatter coming from that bunch of Gryffindor girls. Shaking his head, he says the incantation a second time, this time a bit louder. He then bends forward to listen to any potential change to the guitar’s sound. At least, this time, it doesn’t seem to be too out of tune, but it does still sound more or less as a guitar. “Hmm… it didn’t have any effect this time, did it? It still sounds like a guitar to me, what do you think?”

Raising his finger to pause David, Darius turns and announces, “Nellie Caldwell, minus one point to Gryffindor for gossiping! Gertrude Baxtor! Minus one point to Slytherin for gossiping! Focus on the lesson, both of you. I expect you to have perfected this charm by next week.” He turns back to David and smiles, “It’s going to take practice, but yes. It’s still sounding like a guitar. What are you trying to change it to?”

“I heard that,” Gertrude agrees quietly, playing a single note on her violin, which still sounds like a violin, if a slightly inexpertly played one, before she lowers the bow again, to turn and gape at Darius in horror. “I was not gossiping!” She protests, though only quietly – she doesn’t really want to make it worse for herself, after all. Then, turning back to Nellie, she lowers her voice still further to whisper, “On the subject of Hufflepuff boys, DeWitt and Pantall broke up, didn’t they?” She plays a few more notes on the violin, correctly played if not very elaborate, and adds, “Still a violin, dear.”

Observing Professor Dwight as he admonishes the two girls, and can’t suppress a little smirk on his lips, for the teensiest moment. He tries to concentrate again on the task at hand as the chatter dies out instantly. “Well… I tried to come up with something guitar-like…” David says to Professor Dwight, “since you mentioned it was easier to start with something not too different than the original instrument. Perhaps… yes, a banjo. I heard it once on the radio, at home… it was fun.” David says, chuckling. “I suppose I need to remember how it sounds for the charm to perform well, right?” He frowns a little. “That was a long time ago, I’m not sure I’ll have the sound right.” he says, as he readies himself to cast the charm a third time. “Could you invent new sounds with this spell?” he asks, with sudden curiosity.

“Yes,” Darius nods, “But there’s a better charm for that, called Mousiki betamorpho. We’ll be studying that in a few weeks, and you’ll be amazed at how versatile it is. But you can use allasso to create sounds that aren’t instruments, for example, you could make a violin sound like a tree creaking. It’s often used in stage shows, and the like, to produce sound effects.” Standing up, Darius asks, “So how are we all doing? Has anyone gotten the charm to work yet?” He looks out over the class.

“It isn’t gossip,” Nellie retorts crossly as she glances up momentarily to Darius and huffs a little bit. “Alright, I’ll go again.” A deep breath, and, “Mousiki Alasso,” She says firmly and points her wand sharply at the violin. “Make different music, you stupid violin.” She sighs. “I think she’s two-timing him. I haven’t heard anything about any breakup anyway.” This, however, is said much more quietly and covertly than her previous statements. “Well, try it out. It better work this time.”

“It would not surprise me at all,” Gertrude replies, a little smugly, playing a few more notes on her violin. Perhaps they sound a little off now, though this might be because of a poorly done spell, or simply because the girl isn’t very good at the violin. “And you are right, knowing her it would have been particularly loud and public, but she’s been clinging awfully close to Linwood ever since the train trip. You know what they say was going on there.” Another few notes, and the girl shakes her head, hair flying about her face. “Still nothing, dear.”

“It’s not working for me. My wand must be acting up today.” She shrugs at this. “It would be so interesting if she is double-timing him,” the girl states with a grin. “Such drama. I hear the older boy has it out for Linwood.” The girl looks slyly up at the front of the room, however, and holds her wand up. “Should we switch and see if her wand is working better, Professor?” Yes, Nellie. Make sure he knows that you’re at least trying to make it look like you’re trying.

“Oh… awesome.” David says, nodding enthusiastically at Darius. “I can’t wait for that. Anyway. I need to have that charm work at least once.” David says. The boy takes a deep breath, tries to imagine the way he would like the guitar to sound like, and casts the spell. “Mousiki Alasso!” he says. This time, it seems to have worked. The guitar was sounding differently this time, not quite banjo-like, but it was not a unpleasant sound either. And not out of tune this time. “Hmm… what do you think of this?” David asks, with a smile and an expectant look in his eyes.

“Excellent!” Darius grins to David, and announces to the class, “Listen, class!” Playing the guitar like a banjo, he plays a merry Dixieland jazz riff on his guitar, the sound similar but definitely not a guitar. “Five points to Ravenclaw for David’s excellent attempt at the charm.” Putting down the guitar, he walks into the class and says, “David, keep practicing the charm, now on your own whistle. Play it after each cast, and see if there’s any difference. I’m going to supervise the class for a while.” Stepping up to Nellie, he nods, and remarks, “Switching would be a good idea. Let’s see how you do as well.”

Shrugging her shoulders vaguely and lowering her violion, Gertrude seems to be thinking about this for a moment. “Well, could you blame him? Even if it is only Pantall, I would very much not appreciate my sweetheart pursuing someone else while we were still together.” A pause, and she appears to all at once grow tired of this conversation, pursing her lips thoughtfully and peering off towards the ceiling. “What about anyone else, do you know? It has only been a few days, but I imagine there are plenty of others who have secured dates already. What about… oh, who else?” She pauses, thoughtfully, pulling her wand and waving it vaguely, with the presumed intention of casting the charm on the other girl’s instrument eventually.

“All right, all right, let’s finish this up, all eyes to the front.” Darius moves back to the front of the class, sitting one of the chairs and mitigating his height different with the class as a result. (Although not entirely, due to his towering height anyway.) “Now, you all played very well in your group performance examination last year. I trust it wasn’t too nerve wracking for any of you?” He gets a couple of chuckles from that, and grins. “This year, your examinations get slightly tougher, in preparation for your OWLs next year. As before, there will be a theory written exam mid-year. This will be on the History of Wizo-Music, and you’ll be wanting to read ‘Swing That Wand!’ to get the answers you’ll need. I don’t want anyone unprepared for it.” Darius casts a meaningful glance around the room to confirm that everyone’s paying attention. “Now, at the end of the year, you’ll be performing, once again, in the Great Hall before the whole student body. If anyone is nervous about this, well, deal with it. This is a performance art, after all. You will this year need to do a group performance, and either a small group or individual performance as well. If you choose an individual performance, though, keep in mind we mean individual. You will need to play all instruments, sing if you choose to sing as well… it’s you alone on stage. But it’s not a bad idea, since this is how the OWLs are marked, so you’ll need to do this sooner or later.” He stresses this, since it’s important. “And we will be discussing how to make self-playing instruments later in the year, so it’s not as daunting as it sounds. Any questions?”

Though apparently intimidated by the suggestion, and perhaps inching a little closer to the Gryffindor girl as if to indicate that she doesn’t intend to perform individually for a substantial period of time, at least, Gertrude remains silent and doesn’t raise her hand to ask any questions. After a moment, she leans across and whispers, “I did hear that Morgana DeWitt is taking Seker Rathe, though. How’s that for interesting?” This is all she offers for the moment, though, sitting up a little bit straighter and turning her eyes to the front of the classroom again, offering the Professor a small smile, cheeks tinged faintly pink.

David gulps nervously as he listens to the speech made by Professor Dwight. The public performance will no doubt be something daunting, but it is still a long time away, isn’t it. “I’ll worry about that later”, David decides privately, and he shakes his head as he has nothing else to ask to the teacher. Once again, his attention switches to the two gossiping girls. That Barefoot Social is sure taking a huge proportion most conversations as of lately, especially with girls. David privately wonders if a girl is going to invite him this year, and sighs…

“I heard his sister won’t even speak to her because of it,” the girl responds and shakes her head a bit. “I think I could do an individual performance,” she pipes up quickly and grins at the professor. “Is it truly going to be all the school, though? At a feast or something?” Nellie almost seems to take back her statement as she says this and leans back in her seat, slouching a bit in her seat. It is clear that the Gryffindor is not entirely comfortable with her newfound height as yet.

“No. As with last year, it will be an open invitation, so any students who don’t wish to come will not have to be there. Any further questions? No? Alright. Class dismissed. Next week I expect you to have at least a decent hold of the allasso charm, and will be able to play a melody on the ‘wrong’ instrument. Homework is a foot-long scroll on the possible uses of the allasso charm. Class dismissed.” Darius puts his wand back into his robes, and opens the door of the class, wishing each student goodbye as they leave.

“Don’t be silly. Everyone knows that’s because of Marcus Winsley.” Gertrude whispers in response, though exactly how it relates to the boy she does not explain, rising from her seat and packing up her things slowly, offering another small smile to the Professor before slinging her bag over her shoulder and slipping out of the room without so much as a farewell to her fellow students or to Darius. Perhaps she has gone to try and locate someone in particular (perhaps the elusive Matthew Cowper), or perhaps she just doesn’t feel that a goodbye is necessary. Who knows?

“Well, that’s it then…” David nods at Professor Dwight with a little smile, happy that his class went so well. It was certainly not as terrible as what he feared. Going back to his seat, the boy takes his bag, says a little “Goodbye!” to the teacher, and walks away, not caring to listen to the girls anymore. After all, the Potions class is beginning soon, and there is no need to lose time on the way, is there?

“Ghastly,” the girl responds and shakes her head, though as the professor dismisses the class, she does not miss a beat. Nellie is close on Gertrude’s heels as she, too, darts quickly out of the classroom, her trumpet case in hand, having only briefly made an appearance outside of the brown casing. The tallish girl is out of the classroom without a single word to the teacher, nor another glance.

“Come in,” Darius responds in his typically stenorian voice. He’s not busying himself with marking this time. The office seems unusually still, and he is instead waiting behind his desk, giving the quidditch captain his full attention as she comes in through the door, guided by an unusually sternly worded owl letter that simply read, “Come to my office after classes. Please be ready to discuss the fifth of March.” It was the date she had missed Wizo-Music, although the letter doesn’t discuss anything more than that. Maybe she’s still in the clear? Hard to say from that letter alone.

The fact that Noémie hasn’t knocked yet on the door does not escape her, and she stands for a moment, her hand suspended in mid-knock. Returning it to her side, she smooths down her robes before making her way inside. “You wanted to see me, Professor?” she says quietly, stepping inside and trying not to look too much like she knows exactly what she’s there for. She gently pushes the door most of the way shut and comes to stand next to a seat. She’s not about to sit down, as she doesn’t want to be there any longer than is necessary.

Instead of asking her to sit down, Darius stands up and comes to her, leaning on the edge of the desk. “Congratulations on winning the Quidditch Cup this year, Noémie. You took a spectacular catch of the snitch in that last match.”

“Thank you,” Noémie answers with a rather wide grin. She can’t help herself when it comes to Quidditch, especially with being the winners of the Cup this year. “We all worked very hard for it.” She lets the smile wear itself away before returning to the subject at hand, crossing her arms over her chest. “So, you wanted to see me about something?”

“I did. Fifth of march. Defend yourself, Noémie.” Darius‘s voice is stern now, his manner firmer. “You missed Wizo-Music, and our discussion of raindrumming. You’d better have a very good excuse.”

Dropping her eyes almost immediately as he mentions this without any segue or even any indication that he might go easy on her, Noémie licks her lips. “I wasn’t feeling well, Professor, so I had to go lay down for a while. I should have told you about it, and I’m sorry for not doing it, but I have tried to catch up with practice and extra studying and things.” She bites her lip and looks him back in the face, the slightest trace of shame in her eyes as she awaits his reaction.

“Did you go to see the nurse?” Darius asks, his tone of voice dropping. It seems less stern, but still not quite positive. Almost reluctant.

“I fell asleep,” the girl answers in response, shrugging a bit. “I felt better when I woke up, so I didn’t think I needed to go see her afterward; it would have been superfluous.” Noémie crosses her arms and glances around momentarily, before deciding that it isn’t necessary that she sit down. This will be a short meeting, after all. … She hopes.

With a tremendous sigh, Darius walks back around his desk and sits down. “If you like, I’ll take three guesses as to which room you and Joseph were petting in. If I get the right one, will you tell me? I know that Hogwarts seems to have altered itself since I was here, and I’d like to see how good my knowledge of all the best places in the school is.” His eyes now match his voice, conveying tremendous disappointment more than anything else.

Unable to speak, all Noémie can do is stare as her professor says this. So this was how Joseph felt when Professor Kensington made those comments to him. The best the prefect can manage are a few stammers and a very red face as she uncrosses her arms and takes hold of the back of the chair with a rather white-knuckled grip. Even still, she cannot manage to say anything, knowing that whatever is to come out of her mouth will contradict the very large lie that she has just told.

Darius attempts to smile a bit more gently, and asks, “Noémie, take a seat. It might comfort you to know that I’m not mad at you. And nor will I let a word of this pass these walls, alright?” There’s still disappointment in his voice, but not as much. “It might also comfort you to know that I know almost exactly what it feels like to be in your shoes, and exactly what it felt like to be in Joseph’s.”

This does not seem to calm Noémie, and in fact her face only gets redder as she sinks into the chair, slumping rather low. “That’s… er… alright,” is all she manages to say, her face very much the shade of a ripe strawberry as she crosses her arms over her chest. She’s certainly not going to get caught doing something like this again. Hearing of the escapades of the teachers is just not something that the girl finds she would like to think over.

Spotting that he’s getting exactly nowhere with this girl, and sighing more, Darius instead declares, “I have no proof that anything you’ve said to me today is untrue. Get out of here, Noémie.” He looks to her one last time, and then sighs quietly.

“O-oh, okay,” she responds, standing up slowly, chewing on her bottom lip as she does so. “I’ll just… go.. then…” Noémie tells the professor slowly and glances around the office. “I’ll see you tomorrow for lessons,” she tacks on hastily at the end before turning to slip out the door as quickly as she can. Crisis averted. Despite the fact that she has just clammed up in the presence of a Professor, one can bet that a certain Ravenclaw Wexler is going to get an earful as soon as she locates him.

“Noémie,” Darius calls at the moment before she walks out the door.

Pausing as she hears her name, the girl stops and turns, opening the door back up. “Yes sir?” she tells him and bites her lip as she looks at him from outside the office. Perhaps Noémie isn’t off scot-free, after all.

After a very long pause, Darius simply asks, “You’re a good student, Noémie. Please don’t miss any more classes.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Noémie tells him, her voice clear and almost forceful as she says this, and if that weren’t enough, the resolve on her face seems quite set. Her face is still a maroon shade as she says this and she falters as she turns to leave. “And, er, thank you, Professor,” she tacks on before finally turning. The girl rubs at her cheeks as she makes her way toward the exit of the classroom, as if doing this will make her face less red.

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 Felicity‘s expression as she gives an upset kind of squeal and sets he cup aside, immediately grabbing for a towel to dry herself off with while looking toward Gabriel and Andy with half-concerned, half-accusing eyes. How was she going to clean herself off? She was so poor with cleaning charms that it was almost laughable. “Oh, what a mess! Are you alright, Gab–Andy?” Her eyes shift up toward the second name with almost a little surprise, her eyes narrowing, though more in uncertainty than annoyance.

“No, thank you,” Lenore murmurs distractedly, still peering at Kelly and Charlie. “Well, if she is being unfaithful to him, then they’ll have a big row about it, and if she was just lying, well, we’ll find out sooner or later. But does he know she has a sweetheart already? That would be really bad.”

Clavicle Gravely to his credit, stumbles as well a moment later, and makes it look like a dance step. “I don’t know…seems to fit the rhythym well.” he grins as the music starts a Miles Davis sounding syncopation to match their odd dancing. “Music to match

Gabriel nods, grinning to Andy as he sighs. “Oh yeah,” he says casually. “Just lost my balance. Sorry,” he adds hoping he hasn’t trod on Andy’s feet (though, with both boys not wearing shoes, the situation wouldn’t be tragic even if he had.) When he looks back to Felicity, though, his eyebrows raise in concern. Uh oh. Girls hated it when they got things spilled on their clothes! “Felicity!” is all he can say at first, not knowing what to do. “Should we get a professor to help?” he asks Andy.

Riley Markham rather pointedly keeps his gaze from the dancefloor as he collects up a small plate of biscuits and sandwhich meats (though forgetting the bread), before making his way back toward the round tables. Pausing briefly, he passes an almost curious glance to Orion, who seems to be sitting on his own drawing, before making his way over to the sixth-year loner. Flopping down in a seat somewhat near the artist, he drops his food on the table and tries to make some non-challant lean to see what it isn that the older boy is drawing. “Havin’ fun, mate?”

Kelly Pantall beams brightly at Charlie, though she is starting to get a little bit breathless from the dancing – not quite to the point of exhaustion, but it seems quite evident that she doesn’t look like she could keep going for very much longer. “Thank you! This is fun, isn’t it?” She twirls again, this time a little more exhuberantly, watching as her skirt bells out around her again. Dancing with friends is ever so much more fun than dancing with someone who fancies you. Not that the Gryffindor girl would really know the difference.

After looking over the choices for a bit, Evan selects two tarts that are at least something red, offering one to Olivia. “This might be. It’s one of the two, anyway..” While talking, he manuvers himself into the line around the punch bowl, still looking over the rest of the table. “Oh, I haven’t seen this type of cheese before.” It’s a pale yellow, and he selects a piece, nibbling at that. “I like it; I’ll have to suggest it for our next party at home.” Chat-y, yes, but he’s surprising comfortable here, for the most part. “Would you like to dance after this? It looks like people are starting now, we wouldn’t be out there alone.”

Saphia Bona smiles, but doesn’t seem to have much more to say. Soon, however, it’s clear that she’s getting a little tired, and is beginning to look fondly at one of the food tables as she dances with Clavicle.

Aisling O‘Cormac shakes her head angrily. “Regardless,” she states, “it’s bad form on her behalf! She should know better than this, she’s, well, old!” Making a move to head towards the dance floor, she stops as she realises Lenore is still behind. Turning, she seems to gather her thoughts before speaking. “Um.” she says, stunningly eloquent. “Our table is closer to the dancefloor, and to Kelly, than we are. How about some food instead of a return there?” No mentioning that if she did go close to Kelly the older girl might end up worse off…

Clavicle Gravely grins and nods to her seeing the look. “Famished I am. Want to grab something and sit a round or two out?”

Kara Raine shrugs, offering Chris a small smile. “How about we just walk around for a bit, I mean I have seen all that there is, but I can show it to you now. There are some really neat games, one that involves tossing a goblin I think.” With a smile, Kara nods her head. “Want to? We can swing around by the food tables and get something to snack on as well.” The girl reaches her hand out toward Chris, but blushes and drops it to her side quickly. “Sound good?”

“Beauty is it’s own entertainment, and it’s own reward,” Orion says, cassually, though with a somewhat dismissive note in his voice toward the nosy Ravenclaw who has chosen to sit beside him. He doesn’t, however, choose to hide his sketch. Naturally, it’s a sketch of people in dress robes. Two, in particular, whom his gaze seems to be flickering toward across the room. Two younger students, displaying a variety of facial expressions that seem to little his parchment. Curiously, though, both the girls who seem to have caught his fancy share a last name. “You needn’t feel compelled to converse with me simply because I’m sitting alone. I enjoy the relative quiet.”

“Bad form?” Lenore whispers, apparently finding that a completely random way of describing it. “Well, okay.” She offers after a moment of silence, and slips off towards the food tables, plucking some tasty treats for herself, then slipping under those tables without another word. Her hand reaches out to beckon Aisling to follow her, though whether the other girl even noticed where she went is entirely uncertain.

“It’s more fun than I thought it would be, sure,” says Charlie in what could possibly be mistaken for (being that it is) an agreeable tone. He slows as it seems a conclusion to the music, or at least part of it, arrives. “Did you want to keep going?” Technically she did say only one song, which he may or may not point out should she say yes. “Or perhaps get something to drink?”

Gasping as she hears the commotion near Gabriel, Briony comes running. “Oh, everyone is alright then? Oh, it’s just Felicity who got it,” she says, a bit of relief flooding her. The girl sighs a bit, standing around as the scene progresses around her. “Well, ahm. Let’s go dance, Albert,” Briony says quickly, dragging the boy towards the floor, pausing momentarily as she spys an older boy watching her. Unsure of what to make of this, the girl skips more quickly towards the floor, donning a pair of the shoes that have been set out and dancing rather quickly and erraticly.

Saphia Bona nods once more, smiling to Clavicle as she finally steps off the dance floor, gently slipping off her shoes as she does so. Almost instantly, a set of Hogwarts house elves start cleaning the shoes with sprays. (Although not daring to actually touch the shoes, just in case that could count as being given clothing!) When they’re done, the shoes are perfectly clean and ready for the next couple… and Saphia is ever so slightly creeped out. But that’s to be expected. She sidles over to the food table with Clavicle and picks up a jam bun from the table, munching happily on it.

There’s quite a line to dunk the goblin, and Katherine Nichols has plenty of time to bounce back and forth between the line and the snack tables, fetching enough brownies and biscuits for herself and all of the others, plus a handful of Bertie Bott’s Beans deposited in her purse among the Knuts and Sickles. Cheerfully munching on a brownie as she slips back in line next to Alexandra, she rises up on her bare tiptoes to peer up to the front of the line – which is much closer now than it was when she left. “How are they doing?” she asks her friends in general.

Chris Jitsunari nods. “Sure.” He notices her hand, his mind goin hectic for a moment before she drops it. The boy smiles while walking over to the games with her. Eyeing the games he just now registers her comment, “Did you say there’s one where you throw a goblin?”

Kelly Pantall seems entirely out of breath when she slows to a halt, kicking the dancing shoes off and shaking her head firmly – her cheeks are quite pinked with exertion, now. “Oh, I would absolutely love to keep going, Charlie,” she offers, once she gets her breath back. “But I really do need a drink. Perhaps in a few minutes? Once I’ve cooled down again?” She doesn’t move to depart yet, awaiting his response.

Andy Carver‘s gaze slowly wanders to Felicity, standing there and trying to dry herself off. “Sorry.” he calls through the commotion in a miserable tone and turning to Gabriel, who had been really nice at least. “Ahm… yes I’m sure Professor Kensington will help us. I’ll go and call her.” With a last apologetic look Andy turns around and walks over to Professor Kensington. Eased to have a few seconds to think about the whole fuss.

Clavicle Gravely grins as he pulls Saphia along towards the food. “I’m famished. Utterly famished.”

Grabbing a disposable plate, Aisling O‘Cormac piles on some pocket bread, some delicatessan meat, and some other savoury foods, as well as a small, green coloured tart. Glancing around carefully, she clambers under the table with Lenore. Looking to the other girl, she offers her something from her plate. “I hope no one important saw us.” she comments, taking a bite out of a bit of pocket bread.

“Well, not throw exactly, there is a dunk the goblin, where you throw balls to hit the target to dunk it. And I think there is a toss game somewhere.” Both hands are clasped tightly behind her back, as Kara chats with her friend.

Felicity Wexler almost, almost growls when Briony comes charging in only to dismiss her own plight and charge out again. But with almost imperial (and impressive) restraint, she reels in her temper and tries to hold in her glower. Shaking slightly, she offers a strained, but sweet smile to Gabriel and Andy before shaking her head slightly. “It’s nothing that won’t come off in the wash. It’s.. Andy, no, really..” Her voice trembles a little as Andy walks away, however. This had taken a decided turn for the worse, and she felt close to crying. She’s distracted from that feeling, however, by Orion. Feeling his eyes upon her, a slightly embaressed sort of look crosses her expression, before she turns back to her date.

Charlie Linwood nods, then, fairly pink the face himself, “Alright, a drink then.” He quite carefully removes his own set of shoes, and remarks in a somewhat surprised tone, “Feels kind of good to be barefoot after all that.” Hopefully the shoes are self-cleaning, because a lot of boys(though not necessarily Charlie!) have stinky feet. And some of the girls. He moves toward the punch, not minding (or hearing) some whispers as he and presumably Kelly, go past.

Before she leaves, Gabriel has opened his mouth to ask Briony how her day is going, but is left hanging as the girl drags Albert off with her. Watching as Andy goes to fetch the professor, Gabriel looks sympathetically to Felicity, and in a moment of genius, actually thinks to comfort her. “Don’t worry Felicity, we’ll get the punch out. It was my fault, really,” he says, smiling near the end. Having followed her glance, however, Gabriel looks over to Orion, who has been looking oddly at Felicity. “Hey,” Gabriel calls, more curious than anything. “What, uh, what are you looking at her for?”

As Clavicle gets caught up with a Slytherin first year (who really seems to like his tattoos), Saphia wanders over to Orion and Riley, whispering, “Those pictures really are very pretty, sir.” She smiles, not knowing his last name.

Lenore Pantall shrugs vaguely, taking a dainty little bite out of whatever it was she plucked from the table, having paid exactly zero attention to exactly what it was she was grabbing. “We aren’t breaking any rules by hiding under the table,” she whispers. “I just hope no one important saw Kelly dancing with a different Hufflepuff boy.”

“That sounds like fun,” she says and glances out towards the floor as she finally gets a cup of punch. “Oh, my! Look, so many of them are wearing shoes! Is that allowed?” She stares for a moment longer, then realizes that all the shoes seem to match. “Interesting, I wonder where they all got them.” She eats a bit of tart and smiles a bit. “It’s raspberry,” she announces to nobody in particular and proceeds to finish it off quickly. Rather hungry for a girl who has only been throwing balls at a small target. Olivia smiles to Evan as he comments about the cheese. “Do you often have parties like this at your house? I imagine it must be quite crowded.”

Riley Markham shoots Orion a somewhat surly expression, picking up his food and moving to the next table over. “Rude son of a..” His gaze, however, follows the voice calling across the tent toward the older Hufflepuff with a slightly curious look. Just vindictive enough to enjoy watching someone getr their just deserts, Riley turns to look upon Orion with a smug smile. Drawing other people’s dates was sure to have interesting consiquences.

Kelly Pantall certainly does follow Charlie, fanning her face with one hand and pouring herself a generous measure of the pale pink punch. “Ugh. You’re right. Dancing is quite a lot of fun, really, but it’s very tiring and not at all dignified.” Never mind the fact that dancing is supposed to be a very dignified activity, not the exhuberant twirling she was engaged in. “You’re a good dancer and a very nice boy, Charlie.” This random compliment comes entirely out of the blue in between mouthfuls of punch, and is said rather airily and flippantly.

The boy snickers at how silly throwing a goblin in a game sounds. “Yeah, guess that wouldn’t be very nice for the goblins.” Chris nods towards the said game, “Ima have a go at it.” He picks up a ball, lobbing it at the target, getting nowhere near. Chris sratches his head nervously, “Harder than it looks.” His face seeming to fight a pink tint throughout the time, obvious that the 11 year old seems to be fighting nervous streaks. Chris smiles and hands the ball to Kara, “How bout you have a go at it?”

Still happily partaking of the snacks, still surrounded by her fellow third-years, Katherine finally makes it up to the front of the goblin-dunking line, taking her place next to Kara and Chris. She readily hands over several Knuts (and a jellybean or two, mixed in with the other contents of her purse), accepts the balls in return, and winds up to take a throw. She doesn’t have much power behind it, and the ball only brushes the edge of the target, but Katherine is having fun, even if she doesn’t come close to dunking the goblin. Still giggling cheerfully, she moves on to try the next game, her friends close behind.

“Ahm…Sorry Professor Kensington. Would you be kind enough…ahm…you know, Felicity…” Andy points over to his friend. “…has spilled some punch on herself and I thought you could…ahm…maybe cast a cleaning charm on her dress.” Andy looks quite confused, which is reflected by his speech. Nevertheless he looks up to the Professor with a begging expression.

Evan Geroff takes a sip of his punch, nodding afterwards as though pronouncing it worth the wait. “Not this large, but Mother occasionaly likes to entertain people.. perhaps I could have you invited to the next one.” Still sipping punch, he (assuming Olivia is agreeable) begins to find his way through the refreshment crowd and out toward the dance floor. “And that answers the second question – that’s where the shoes came from.”

Aisling O‘Cormac shrugs calmly. “It’s not that I think we’d be breaking any rules, exactly. I just think that people would think it a bit odd, that’s all, hiding under a table.” Turning her mind to Kelly and her strange Hufflepuff companion – strange, because he wasn’t her supposed date, Rafe – she asks surprisedly, “Why? She’d get her comeuppance from that! I mean, she can’t just, well, get away with this.” Peering out from under the table, she gasps quietly. “Hey Lenore?” she asks. “Um, Kelly was wearing green, right? I think that might be her right there!” she points, speaking sotto voce.

Orion Kari lifts his gaze slowly, his movement surprisingly graceful and fluid, not unlike a certain Slytherin girl of the same year on that house’s quidditch team. And for a moment, he meets Gabriel’s eyes with a look that could only be described as momentary irritation. “Sketching,” he answers, simply, before pulling his feet off the chair from in front of him and moving to stand. Passing a glance past his shoulder toward Saphia, he shares with her a decidedly rakish sort of smile, before rising. “Thank you, my lady,” he murmurs, turning toward her so that he can incline his head slightly in a neat half-bow in honor of the Ravenclaw girl, before moving toward the dancefloor. Obviously having chosen to ignore Gabriel.

Kara Raine takes the ball, smiling at Chris. “Okay, thanks, maybe Junior squad practice will have paid off?” Bitting her lower lip, Kara hauls her arm back and throws the ball as hard as she can, hitting the edge of the target, but yet not enough to activate the mechanism. “Oh, did you see, I almost had it Chris! But, my dress robes are the easiest things to throw in, why don’t you try again. I’m sure you can do it.” Grin.

Charlie Linwood blinks slowly over his punch at Kelly, and swallowing ventures: “I’m sorry?” Either he didn’t hear, didn’t understand, or did both and is apologizing, given her tone. Another sip of punch, and he doesn’t respond further than that, looking first at his bare toes(which he wiggles), and then at the punch bowl again, and then over at the games, and then back to Kelly, a quick glance to see if she looks cross.

Riley Markham passes a glance toward Saphia, nodding to her briefly, before shooting a look upon Orion that would be fatal if only looks had the power to kill. Dropping back down in to the seat he had taken, he mutters something horribly unkind about Kari under his breath, before taking up another biscuit and chomping down in to it hard.

Lenore Pantall gasps audibly, cringing further under the table and inching away from Kelly, her face a mask of anger and annoyance. “She can’t do that!” She hisses, folding her arms across her chest – whether she means complimenting a different boy, dancing with a different boy or coming over to Lenore‘s little hidey-hole to get a drink is entirely uncertainly. “She can’t, she can’t – I hope Rafe yells at her!” Oh, what a threat. What a threat.

Clavicle Gravely manages to disengage himself from the first year by pointing her towards Sedgewick and saying in a whisper that the professor is accepting extra credit for guessing the punch contents. he flees back to Saphia

“Well, alright then,” the woman agrees and strides over to where Andy has directed. “Is there some trouble over here? I heard someone was in need of a cleaning charm?” Bonnie glances around and looks to Felicity, whose red dress is augmented by some punch. Directing her wand at the scarlet garment, Bonnie quickly mutters a charm and the dress is dry again. “Anything else I can help you all with?” she asks cheerfully.

Still setting the pace on the dance floor, Eliza doesn’t look like she’s even close to being tired. Even though she looks out over the top of the crowd once in a while, giving the scene a quick, searching glance, her attention is mostly on the music. In and out she spins, grinning broadly – and if Geoffrey is distressed by the fact that the Head Girl seems to be paying more attention to dancing than to him, he does not show it. And for her part, Eliza is content to keep dancing, for as long as the music continues.

Kelly Pantall certainly doesn’t notice Lenore hiding under the table at all, even with the strange threat uttered, and just looks at Charlie with a perplexed expression, head tilted slightly to the left as she inspects him. “You’re a good dancer and a nice boy.” Never mind the earlier venom that came with the word nice when referring to Clementine, now she delivers it rather cheerfully. “A very nice boy, and I think that if it weren’t for your secret, I might almost be interested in you. Almost. Because, you know, I’d still like Rafe better.”

Smiling the boy takes the ball, not really thinking he can, but if she insists. Chris looks at the target, this time actually aiming. He pulls his arm back and throws the ball, actually hitting it, knocking the goblin into the water. The boy turns to Kara smiling, “Guess you were right.”

Aisling O‘Cormac clenches her jaw angrily. “That’s it!” she hisses to Lenore. “She can’t be allowed to be like this! It’s just not fair. I don’t care about how crazy she is, I’m going up there to confront her!” Crawling out from under the table just beside where Kelly and Charlie are standing, she stands, shaking her robes clean, and taps Kelly on the shoulder, then waits for her reaction.

Kara Raine giggles, cheering as the goblin takes a dunk. “See, I told you, you could do it! Nice job Chris! Don’t forget your prize.” Glancing around, Kara looks at some of the other games lined up. “Oh, lets go and try some of the others, well, you can try them and I can cheer for you. See, I told you we were going to have fun at this.” Hands still clasped behind her back, the first year Ravenclaw beams to her friend.

“With all sorts of officials, I imagine,” Olivia comments as they make their way towards the floor. “Oh, my, so that’s where the shoes came from. Do you think they’re clean?” she asks and looks down at them, ignoring the fact that her own feet could not be less sanitary than the shoes. “I imagine my parents wouldn’t protest a party with Ministry officials, especially since my dad works there.” She nods resolutely and sets her punch glass down, then leans down to put shoes on, disregarding how clean they are or are not.

Charlie Linwood chokes a bit and then coughs a lot(and blushes a fair amount but he’s just turning red from the choking, honest!!) and then stares at Kelly and then as if it is the only thing he can think of, “I’m not nice, you know.” Then he coughs some more, throat ticklish from the choking as of yet, and then stares at the strange little girl from his House who just… came out from under the table? Charlie just plain gapes. There’s something wrong with the girls at this school tonight, that’s for certain.

Felicity Wexler blushes as Professor Kensington arrives to clean her up with simple flick of her wand, Felicity murmurs an embaressed “thank you” and shakes her head. Gabriel’s shout across the room to Orion, however, catches her attention, making her go somewhat wide-eyed and bringing a whole new shade of scarlet to her cheeks. Pulling her lower lip between her teeth and looking fairly small, she honestly wasn’t sure what to do at this point. She felt in over her head for the first time since arriving.

“Probably self-cleaning,” Evan comments, slipping a pair on himself before reaching for her hand. “I’ll send Mother an owl about it.” It’s only then that he notices the shoes have changed to match the occasional ‘star’ on his robes. “Well, will you look at that.”

Clavicle says, “Saphia.. What’s going on over here? And thanks for setting that first year on me. I think that was that girl with the Sign… I swear if she shows up at our quidditch… I’ll be cross.” he chuckles “Riley…you look cross, what’s going on?”"

Clavicle Gravely ‘s question is not accusatory…but concerned

Kelly Pantall nods her head firmly, observing, “Right. Nice is a really awful word. It implies you have no spine.” She almost sounds like she’s quoting someone for a moment, before her eyes widen in alarm. “Gosh, Charlie, are you alright? Don’t die, please, it’d be just my luck to have my only friend up and die on me when I dance with th – what?” She whirls on Aisling, folding her arms in annoyance. “My friend’s dying, I have no time for this.”

Saphia Bona smiles to Clavicle as he wands back up and smiles, but quickly defends herself, “Oh, it wasn’t my faulty Leonard pounced on you, he’s been wanting to do so all evening. The worst you can fairly accuse me of it deserting you, Clavicle.” She pauses a second, and then whispers, “And, erm, sorry about that.”

Lenore Pantall crawls out from under the table, her cheeks flushed pink with embarassment, her eyes downturned. She tugs on Aisling’s sleeve, not daring to speak, but her expression speaking for her – this isn’t a good idea, really. Plus, her eyes flicker up at Charlie in a mixture of concern and horror, apparently believing wholeheartedly that he actually is dying. In the middle of the social. Some people are so inconsiderate.

Weaving in between couple after couple sharing the large dance floor (which seems surprisingly small now, all thing considered), Orion Kari seems to float through the crowd with a purpose. Pulling a page free from his sketch book as he moves, he makes a point to walk (not by, or around, but..) between Albert and Briony on his way to the tent’s rear exit. His movement one that would seem all to cassual, if not somewhat careless. As he passes, though, he drops the parchement with the sketches he’d been working on. Letting the sheif drift to the Gryffindor girl’s feet.

Rolling her eyes, Aisling glares at the older girl in front of her. “Your friend isn’t dying. And, well, it’d probably be good news for you anyway if he did, because then your date couldn’t kill him for being stupid enough to dance with you!” Having said all of this hardly without breathing, she pauses to take a breath, and notices Lenore’s appearance. Too late to stop her, she’s on a roll now.

“They’ve got flowers on them, just like my gloves, look!” Olivia points out with a laugh, only marvelling a small bit a them. “Let’s get out there before it’s full,” she comments, and indeed the floor seems to be quickly filling up, especially with older students. The girl giggles and stands, momentarily, in the dominant position, blushing a bit as she drops her arms, shocked that she had done such a thing. After all, Helen and Gertrude always made her dance as the boy. She waits for Evan to make his way onto the floor to join her.

Charlie Linwood may be dying, but it is more because his brain has turned into a lump of vegetable mush than because she startled him into choking on his punch. Very, very slowly her alarm registers and it’s in something of a vague, detatched voice that he says, “Not dying.” Sentances apparently having escaped his particular level of thought processing right about now. To Aisling, “Fr…” another cough, “We’re friends.” Here comes his cross face, though not necessarily any level of coherance, “I’m not stupid.” He doesn’t sound in particular smart.

“Rafe’s not going to kill Charlie!” This is obviously the most important part of the whole matter, as Kelly responds to this most indignantly, uncrossing her arms and planting her hands firmly on her hips. “He might, you know, attack him a little but he wouldn’t kill him. That would be murder.” Oh. Poor, poor Charlie. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with just dancing, dancing is fine – if it was any more than dancing it would be bad but it’s not! We’re just friends, and I was being considerate.” She peers around vaguely, apparently wondering where her date actually is.

Riley Markham rolls his eyes somewhat, the banter between Saphia and Clavicle doing little to ease his irritation. Jealousy was terrible mistress. Still, he manages to swallow it as best he can, laying back in his seat with an irritated sort of look. “That Kari prat,” he hisses. “Rudest sod I’ve ever met. Great, terrible bast–” A small gurgle from his stomach, however, catches Riley off guard, pausing him in mid-sentance. Placing his left hand over his belly with a slightly odd expression, he makes a little face and mutters something to himself before reaching up to crack open on of the butterbeer bottles he’d won earlier.”

Saphia Bona pauses, and whispers a second or two after Riley finishes his sentence, “Riley… weren’t you going to be here with someone?” She asks, confused and concerned.

As Briony‘s dancing is interrupted, she stops and stares. “How rude,” she comments rather blandly, watching the older Hufflepuff make his way through the crowds of dancers and drops the bit of parchment. “Oh, no, he dropped this.” She leans down to pick up the sheaf and stands straight again. “Albert, you don’t mind if I take it to him, do you? Here, you can dance with Kalynn, if you want. Kalynn! Dance with Albert, won’t you? Fantastic!” The girl grins and trots off to try to return the sheaf to Orion.

Clavicle Gravely hmms. “Right. Well Riley…you are here. you have to dance.” he grins and goes to pull Riley up. “Come on then.”

Aisling O‘Cormac almost snorts at Kelly’s last point. “Considerate?” she queries, “How, considerate? Would not staying with your date, or even knowing where he is be considerate? You were being selfish, and probably inherently nasty, too, by dancing with another boy, regardless or not of whether he was aware of your motives!” Having said what is at the forefront of her mind, she continues, “And how DARE you prattle on about serial killers, scaring people, especially your sister-” there we go, her famous subtlety at work again “-into being small and scared of new things, people, places, and social events, because they could be caught by a killer! It’s just so foolish! And small-minded of you.” she huffs, pulling hard on one of her tightly-wound plaits.

“He’s allowed to go where he wants without me keeping tabs on him!” Kelly retorts angrily, apparently resenting the fact that someone else has noticed that she actually doesn’t know where her date is right now. “If Rafe wants to wander off he can – and dancing with Charlie doesn’t count as dancing with another boy!” Someone should have warned Charlie that she simply can’t keep secrets. However, to her credit, she at least doesn’t expand on this point any further before whirling around to face the Hufflepuff boy again. “You’re not really dying, are you? You’re going to be alright, yeah?”

The boy and his friend go around to various games, winning a few, losing a few. Chris‘s stomach growls and he smiles nervously to Kara, “Let’s get some food.” She agrees as they walk to the food tables, Chris picks up a few items of food. As he snacks he notices all the commotion, two of the people involved he recognizes as fellow housemates. Muttering, “I wonder what’s got them all angry.”

Riley Markham almost chokes on his butterbeer with Saphia’s query, gagging and coughing as the amber liquid leaks briefly from the corners of his mouth. “Ah, that! Er, well, you see,” Riley mutters, meekly, wheezing for breath, brushing his mouth off on his sleeve and scracthing the tip of his nose with his scarred index finger. “I, er… she, well, got dumped, eh? Decided she wan’d tah go with some older Slytherin prat.. Ah, so, er… S’alright, eh. I, er… what?” Riley‘s eyes bug slightly as Clavicle starts to pull him up, moving almost immediately to shake the boy off. Not violently, but fairly adimantly. “If you think I’m dancing with you, yer a lark! Even under that femina-felto potion, yer.. well, not my type, eh?”

Clavicle says, “Come come …I’ve never known a Markham to be a coward…rise to the challenge then. Off to the floor with you.” he grins. “And not JUST me…you prat. Bopth of us…. go on.”"

Aisling O‘Cormac looks confused for a moment. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Charlie is a boy. You were dancing with him. How does this not count as dancing with another boy, hm? And what about the serial killer stuff? You haven’t denied a single thing about it, but I doubt that you’re sorry in the slightest! The prefects were right to take those books away from you, you’re too socially dangerous!” Glaring at Kelly, she spares a moment for a side glance to Lenore, who looks like she wishes she wasn’t there. “Sorry, Lenore,” she whispers to the girl beside her. Facing back to Kelly, she straightens her back, making her all of five foot tall, and continues to galre.

Charlie Linwood apparantly has the presence of mind to say, “You’re the one who said I’d be killed… and I don’t think Kate could possibly make her sister short.” Charlie‘s voice is a mix between cross and utterly confused, and after a moment, he says, “She isn’t–” and he chokes on the air this time, wheeling on Kelly, “Ssssshhhhhh!” is hissed, and then, all his senses returning with the near escape of certain secrets, “I’m not going to die but I’m… not going to be alright, either.” Here he actually stamps his foot, which is ridiculous and ineffectual, since they’re outside and barefoot. “You should be with DeWitt. Not me.” Color rises into his cheeks again, and his face twists up oddly. “Not me.”

Kelly Pantall seems utterly confused for a moment, whirling around to face Aisling, then back to face Charlie, then back to face Aisling again, then steps back and glares at both of them in turn. “I’m not socially dangerous! And, well,” she seems on the brink of sharing Charlie’s secrets for real when she turns to glare at him again. “I can’t even pay you a stinking compliment, and you go on a crazy rampage as if I was trying to woo you! I HAVE A BOYFRIEND, CHARLIE! I’M NOT INTERESTED IN YOU!” This particularly loud and high-pitched point made, she whirls around and storms away. Whether her point actually makes sense in context is entirely uncertain. She certainly thinks it does.

Orion Kari had just stepped beyond the aft exit of the tent when Briony catches up to him. His hands buried in his pockets, his sketchbook tucked under one arm, he seems distinctly bored. His gaze shifts skyward, as the light dwindles and the stars begin to twinkle and shine. Not seeming to notice Briony’s following him, he meanders his way toward the small cliff overlooking the southeast, his movements slow and paced, despite the damp weather outside the tent.

Aisling O‘Cormac stares after Kelly as she storms off. “She didn’t get it.” she says calmly. Turning to Lenore, she says once more, “She didn’t even get it! Is she a little bit.. well, backwards, or something?! Because I thought it was pretty clear!” Tugging on one of her plaits, she looks cross.

Lenore Pantall shakes her head silently, shrugging her shoulders lightly. When she does speak, it is at that same barely audible tone, as if she is afraid of being overheard. “She never gets the point.” There is an edeg of sympathy in her voice – though, from context, probably more sympathy for Aisling and Charlie than for Kelly. “I’m sorry, Mister.” She directs to Charlie, her eyes downturned. “Kelly’s a bit weird.”

“Wait! Wait up!” Briony calls, running after him carefully, unused to being barefoot. “You there!” She trots a bit faster, trying to catch up with him. “You dropped this… this paper!” she tells him and shakes it in his direction. Bri has not taken the time to look at exactly what the sheet has on it, but she figures it must be something important. She finally catches up to him, a bit breathless and holds it out to him, putting one hand on her stomach as if to still her breathing. “You dropped this,” she tells him, her breathing rough.

Charlie Linwood is riled up, and shouts after her, “You know good and well I’m not interested in you, either, Pantall!” His voice raises as the distance increases, “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO CAN’T SAY ANYTHING NORMALLY!” he remains rooted to the spot for a moment and then, forgetting to decrease his volume, “She’s not weird!!” Another stamping of the foot, and he storms off in an opposite direction, muttering darkly to himself and making a few first year girls squeal and run out of his way.

Riley Markham blinks, momentarily having to decide between popping Clavicle for slighting his pride and proving his housemate right by turning tail and running like a frightened little girl. Well, discression is the better part of valor. “Leg’go, you silly snake,” Riley says, wrenching his arm free with great effort, before flickering his gaze toward Saphia then back to Clavy. “Later, al’ight?” He says, with a weary sort of chuckle, digging his way out of things. “Yer dates tired, eh? And hungry. S’might be a good time fer us to make like gentlemen and fetch her some food and punch?” Of course, he hasn’t bothered to look if either actually already have food. At this point, he’s playing last line defenses.

Saphia Bona smiles, and comes to Riley’s aid, “Clavicle, I’ve had that jam bun. You sure you don’t want to come with me and point out which of those butterbeer bottles have the repelling charm on them?”

Clavicle Gravely grins a bit. “Sure. I will go and fetch some food.” he turns and walks to the food table and snags a tray and is happy as a lark when suddenly he crouches. A shadowy form beside the table, house elf size…whispers something to him and he blinks. Clavicle nods and takes something…wrapped in red silk from the elf, and carefully folds it into his pocket. The Elf then skirts back to the shadows. He stands, his tray forgotten for a few long moments as the boy merely thinks. He then shrugs as he takes up the tray and continues collecting things for he and his friends.

Orion Kari pauses just at edge of the small cliff, glancing back over his shoulder toward the shouts of the second-year Gryffindor so seriously attempting to call his attention. The thin, misty moisture in the air adding a shimmer to his olive-skinned features in the reflected light of the sunset behind them. “Yes, I did,” he whispers, simply, though he makes no move to pull his hands from his pockets or retrieve the parchment. The notebook, and the sheif of paper in Briony’s hand seem completely unmindful of the dampness about, as if the thin rain were unable to touch them.

Riley Markham flops back down in to his chair with obvious relief, clapping his hands over his face and muttering something unintelligable in to them, before giving a great and lengthy sigh.

As Clavicle starts returning, Saphia‘s found a chair a little ways away from Riley, having decided to give him lots of space tonight. She simply sat at one of the tables, watching the room thin out a little as the night starts coming to a close. It was a lot of fun. More fun than she thought it’d be. As Clavicle gets back to her, she smiles gratefully to him. “Cheers.” She whispers.

Clavicle Gravely grins. “So lets get a butterbeer in us then we can go check out the games.” he grins “I can show tyou how to spin toss the ring which counteracts the bounce charm.

“He-here it is,” she tells him and holds it out to him. “I thought you might want it.” Briony is very obviously taken aback by Orion’s demeanor. Her eyes are a bit wide and she has her arm fully extended to hand him the parchment. She reaches up and smooths her hair a bit, hoping that the mist is not ruining it, then smooths her dress somewhat self-consciously, as if she had always been so conscious of how she looked.

Riley Markham rubs at his eyes briefly, as though nudging the sleep from them before lifting his head with a small smile toward Clavicle. Genuine, even. Reaching up before the boy has set the tray down, he snatches up a roll of amoriare meat and chomps down in it with a small smirk. “Seems like she’s coming along well, eh, my gran?” His tone is somewhat dubious, though he is clearly impressed. “People seem to be take to her, this here went over well.” He lets his thought trail off as he turns his gaze absently aside, staring off at nothing in particular. That third-wheel feeling creeping up on him again.

Clavicle says, “She’s brilliant” he grins at Riley. “If only she’d run interference with my crazy grandmother so I won’t get anymore howlers about violins.” he sighs. He grins at Saphia and grins his grin which shows he has a secret.”

Saphia Bona smiles at Clavicle and accepts one of the bottles of butterbeer, and begins walking over toward the games, letting Clavicle and Riley have a conversation without her.

Orion Kari turns very slowly on his bare feet to face Briony, a small, low smile touching his curious lips. A faint whisper of something more, begging to be seen, to be drawn out. With all the charisma and allure of as might be portrays by a muggle actor in one of their moving pictures, Orion draws a step closer to Briony. Followed by another, and another, until his chest nearly touches her extended hand bearing the parchment. “It was mine, now it’s your own. A gift,” he whispers, quietly. His tone full and rich, and just a hint amused. “A reward for one of my evening’s muse. The fairest by far.”

“Brilliant might be a stretch,” Riley mutters, accepting a butterbeer as well and cracking it open with a satisfied sort of sound (especially since he had spilled a fairly large portion of the one he had been drinking before). “But she’s doing well. It bothers me, though. It just seems so.. wrong.”

“O– oh,” Briony answers, obviously taken in by his charm and charisma. She almost feels herself swooning as she turns her face downward — almost regretfully — to look at the drawings that he has gifted to her. Upon it are drawings of not just herself, but Felicity as well, very good drawings, depicting them in various scenarios and moods. “Oh my,” she breathes, almost as if she doesn’t blieve in the situation. “Is this really what my dressrobes look like,” the girl asks rather breathlessly as he looks up at him, eyes wide.

Clavicle says, “You just got to realize Riley…having her here is one of the best things that could happen…and really, she cares about you… and it’s proof positive there’s greatness in your bloodline.” he shrugs and trots off to meet Saphia at the rings”

Felicity Wexler having watched Orion and Briony sneak away, Felicity can’t help but follow. Curiousity alone would have pulled her, even if it weren’t for her small awe at the momentary attention she’d recieved from the rather handsome young man. Excusing herself for the lavatory while Gabriel and Nate continue chatting, Felicity ducks through the thinning crowd, slipping out the rear entrance of the tent quietly, only having to glance about briefly to find her cousin and the older Hufflepuff standing some distance off. And it’s a sight that catches her breath. “He’s beautiful,” she murmurs, to no one other than herself, as she watches the exchange. Far enough away that she can only barely hear what’s being said over the ambient noise radiating from the tent.

“Alright,” Saphia remarks as Clavicle pulls up beside her, “Show me how to do this…”

“Oh, no, blossom,” Orion murmurs softly, his voice falling from his lips like rich honey song. “No, I’m afraid not.” A coy, almost fierce look touches his deep, mahagony eyes as he leans in close to Briony. Close enough that perhaps from Felicity’s view, it might almost seem as though he were kissing the second-year holding the parchment. “For I am a meager artist, weak and poor. Unable to capture the true beauty of my muse.” His breath near enough to taste for that moment, like fruit. “Your dress, and the beauty donning it, are much more stunning than my quill can ever capture.” And without another word, he rises back to his full height and moves to walk away, head back in the direction of the castle. Humming, quietly.

Clavicle Gravely nods and shows her how to spin the ring which looks like it will make the ring miss. But instead…it reverses the repellant charm and the ring sticks to the first bottle. He looks at her as the goblin scowls, “A Gravely… you may not play this game!” it rudely states!

Saphia Bona blinks at the goblins rudeness, and whispers back, “How dare you! Just because he could actually win, you ban him playing? Well, well, that’s very smart. I suppose. But very unfair!”

Riley Markham exhales a small, almost bitter sigh, before leaning back in his chair. Clavicle had a point, and he knew it, though he didn’t really want to ponder that. The crowd continues to thin as Riley sits there, waiting and waiting. Being the only boy on the events committee, he’d been contracted to help clean up. Pull chairs about and the like.

Clavicle Gravely grins and takes the goblin banning in stride. “Oh no it’s alright…I can just go teach everyone this trick…” the goblin scopwls at Saphia, but doubly so at Clavicle. “Alright…you can play once…IF you stay quiet.” it grumpily states and sits back scowling. “Try it Saphia.” he grins… Obviously his family has dealt with Goblins before.

Staring in awe as the older boy makes his way back to the castle, Briony turns and watches him, then takes several steps, as if to ask him more questions, to bask in his glory. She stops short, though, coming into a sliver of light and gazing down at the parchment in sheer amazement. Was that really her? Of course, she paid little attention to the drawings of Felicity, but focussed entirely on those of herself in awe and amazement.

Saphia Bona attempts it… and sends a hoop spinning wildly and far too powerfully. It pings off one of the bottles, flies upward into the goblin’s head, and by pure chance lands on one of the butterbeer bottles perfectly. Saphia rejoices with a delighted squeek and asks, “Does that mean I win a prize?”

Clavicle Gravely grins and looks at the goblin. The goblin shoves a stuffed dragon of Mauve fabric “I hope you both choke on it!” he states as he closes the shutters. Clavicle laughs, “They hate losing.”

Saphia Bona smiles, taking her dragon with her, and whispers to Clavicle, aware now that they’re one of the few couples left. “Thank you, Clavicle. I had a wonderful time tonight. You’re a perfect gentlemen.” As nice a compliment as it is, it’s a hint that the night is over.

Felicity Wexler watches Orion walk away, exhaling a breath she’d not realized she’d been holding. And it’s only once he is fully out of view that she bursts foward, her bare feet slapping at the loose soil (for once) without regard for the small flesh of mud and moisture that slap up on to her skirt. Without a word, she makes a snatch for the parchment, attempting to lice it from Briony’s hand while she’s distracted. A flush of anger touching her face. How could she have gotten something, when the boy had been looking at her?! “What’s that, huh?!”

Clavicle Gravely nods “Shall I escort you back?

“Hey now, he gave it to me! Don’t be grabby, Felicity,” Briony snaps, quickly turning so that Felicity can’t take it from her. “Why don’t you go back to your date?” the girl suggests, scowling a bit as she remembers just who Felicity’s date is. Bri does not look at all pleased. “Anyway, it’s mine and he gave it to me, and if I could get your ugly face off of it, I would.” She hmphs and starts walking back towards the tent to find her own date, who she has hoisted off on her friend Kalynn for the time being.

Saphia Bona smiles, but shakes her head. “I’m going to help Riley pack up. I don’t think he’s had a good a night as we have. But you go on, OK? I’ll be back later for a game of Wizo-Chess.” She makes her offer, smiling her best, and leans over, giving Clavicle a tiny peck on the cheek.

Riley Markham pushes his himself up finally, noting that only a few stragglers and house-elves remain — those couples to involved in games or snogging to care that the night has ended, or those scattered adults still chittering and chatting aimlessly about whatever it is that adults talk about. Taking up the rubbish that Clavicle and Saphia left behind when they went to go play games, Riley sighs and bins it, before manually helping move chairs across the room for house-elves to vanish.

Clavicle says, “Right.” he looks uncertain, As if he should argue, but when he gets the peck on the cheek he grins stupidly. “Right…wizo-chess.” he wanders hogwarts-ward. “Chess…with Wizo’s.” he nods.”

Though Briony holds it tightly enough to keep her from stealing it, she can’t prevent Felicity from seeing it that moment they’ve both got hold of it. “Hey, I’m on it, too! Those are–HEY!” The third-year’s eyes narrow and she gives a great sort of huff, watching Briony head back toward the tent with a sudden flare of anger. “You, you, you! You ugly brat!” She spits, but having noticed that her “date” seems to have offended Briony, rather than get beat up by the physically superior girl, she decides to fully launch the emotional artillery. And without another word, she seeks out Gabriel again, putting on her extra-cute face.

Saphia Bona walks over to Riley as he packs up, and shows him the new dragon doll she got, which yawns noiselessly as it curls up in her arms. “Wanna name it?” She grins to him as she places the dragon on a table and picks up a chair, helping stack it on top of a second one, upside down.

“Don’t, Felicity! We don’t need to lose more points for Gryffindor just because you’re a stupid, jealous bratface!” Briony huffs into the tent, pausing once inside, to try to calm herself. Somehow, the magic of the moment has been ruined for her, and she now just wants to go upstairs and get out of her dress. “Albert, is it alright if I go up to my commons now,” she asks her date quietly, holding the sheet casually at her side. He agrees and the two of them stride up to the castle and disappear through the entrance.

Riley Markham goes to a great, great length to pretend he saw no kiss on the cheek a moment before pass between one of his housemates to another. Nope, he didn’t see anything of the sort out of the corner of his eye, oh no. Not at all. Though he hardly seems surprised when Saphia comes over. “How ’bout Grav–” He starts, a slightly bitter tone in his voice which he catches almost immediately, spawning a cringe and a small shake of his head. Reaching out to take up her chairs, he adds them to his own and starts across the room. “Robert?”

Saphia Bona nods, and agrees immediately, “Robert, then. He’s now officially a boy.” The dragon sleeps, it’s belly exposed and just dying to be ticked. “You turned her down, didn’t you?” Saphia whispers, incredibly quietly. “When she asked you out. You turned her down.”

Felicity Wexler lingers quite a bit longer with Gabriel than Briony, wanting to make her point. But eventually she and her date retire to the common rooms as well, though Felicity seems more tired now than amused. At least her feet didn’t hurt from wearing uncomfortable boots.

Darius Dwight sighs as the night starts coming to a close. He’s not really sure what to do now. Usually he’s never around once the party ends. Responsibilities, he thinks to himself. Reluctantly, he begins packing up the instruments.

“S’ah good name, eh? S’my dad’s. I wonder how he’s doing?” Riley muses, setting the chairs aside, which the house-elf in front of him promptly vanishes with a poof of smoke. Saphia’s question, however, draws a long sigh from Riley and he turns on his naked heel (tearing a small divot in the grass as his jagged scars tug at the soil). “That’s silly, ‘phia. Got dumped, like I said.” But Riley is naturally a notoriously bad liar. It follows through in to every part of him, including how moved pick up the next few chairs.

Saphia says, “C’mere,” Saphia whispers, dragging Riley away from his chair stacking duties. She tugs him to the one last assembled piece of the tent — the dance floor. Even the shoes have been packed up, and the instruments were a while ago. “One more dance, Riley. Please?”"

Riley Markham pauses, briefly, before finding himself pulled away from his cleaning duties. He was, quite naturally, strong enough to pull away. But something about her tugging, her insistance, broke his will to resist, and once they reach the dance floor and he turns to face her. Something inside his eyes, something across his features, changes. It’s one of those moments, more magical than anything that can be created with a wand. All the torture and frustration of the evening seem to slip away. The pain and the weariness from his illness, the stress of quidditch practice and school work.. It all fades from his eyes, as he looks at her. It may be just a kind gesture, it may be something more. In the long run, it really doesn’t matter, because was Riley looks down upon her in that moment, she’s the only thing in his world. “You sure?” He asks, quietly, and somewhat nervously, as he takes a step closer to her. Moving his arms somewhat hesitantly, as though to mimic what he had seen being down earlier. “Your date might not like it.” The faint smile warming his lips, though, whispers of humor in those words. Something to gently combat the small flush of nervousness running across him.

Sighing, Saphia simply holds one of Riley’s hands as they dance, letting his arm wrap around her gently. Much as with Clavicle, she’s not pressed against her dance partner, nor does she let Riley get away with anything. She’s just a dance partner, and a friend. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you finish speaking, I was just so happy to hear you’d been asked, and happy for me. I was selfish. I thought I’d been handed a solution to all my problems, and I didn’t think of your feelings once. I’m so sorry, Riley.”

Riley Markham chuckles, not daring enough to pull her close or try anything untoward. His heart is brilliantly racing even with this — dancing was somewhat frightening to him, despite it’s excitement. Simply being this close was enough to make him sweat slightly. His lead is fairly off, and his sway is a bit wonky. He really is the sort more suited to throwing punches than leading a dance. But never the less, there he is. His expression softens, and for the first time in a very long time, the unguarded, unangered, unpained image of Riley shimmers forth. “Yeah, well..” He whispers, bowing his head a little. “It wasn’t very fair of me, either. And it made things easier on you, so.. I’m sorry, for.. putting pressure on you, I guess.” And he was sorry, though he wasn’t entirely sure what for. He had no way of quantifying his feelinsg, whatever they were. He knew he had been jealous, and he knew he had been a royal pain. It just.. Quietly, in a voice unshrouded by dry it or dark humor, he asks, “Is it strange, that.. after everything that happened last year, I want to be around you and help protect you?” And honestly, he didn’t know the answer. He hardly knew the question. But he’d figure it out eventually.

Saphia Bona is silent, and has no way to answer that question. She doesn’t understand it either. But then she does have one, and she smiles, “I want to help you too, Riley. I know I can’t help you against Dark Wizards, or even the headmistress.” She smiles shyly, “But … anything I can help with, I want to. Don’t ever feel shy about asking me for anything.” She pauses, just dancing a little more in the silence. “Have you started your transfiguration homework?” She asks, suddenly.

Riley Markham can’t help but smile, as his gaze lifts to meet her own. His deep, dust-green eyes soft. Soft in a way that few people ever got to see. He’d been about to inform her that she had, actually, helped defend him against a dark wizard — or at least one they thought was dark at the time, or that she was forever helping him with his gran without ever trying. Her question tailing it, however, catches him completely off guard and he starts so greatly that he almost proceeds to pick Saphia up and drop her again. “Bloody hell, no! I’ve been to busy with this mess! DAMN IT!” His eyes wide and weary again, and looking somewhat flustered, he grips her hand with his left, scarred one (to flustered to notice), gripping it gently and tugging her almost immediately toward the exit of the tent. “I’ll flunk this midterm if I don’t pass this, com’on!” Romance, budding or nonexistant as it may be, forgotten in the wake of crisis. And the house-elves snicker.

Saphia Bona spins away as Riley dashes for his homework, and smiles at just how hopeless Riley is. And she finishes packing up the chairs for him.

Melvina Prichard watches from the far corner of the room, having been forgotten by all but the house-elves. Many of whom show up at Saphia’s side to deal with the chairs for her, ushering her on. And Melvina can’t help but grin. Her husband would have been proud.

At the end of a long day, the Wizo-Music classroom has already had two classes in it, and is in a bit of a shambles. A few instruments have fallen from their stands, and as the students file in, Darius is busy picking them up and getting the class tidy. The students, and staff, and indeed everyone, is already feeling a little weary. This doesn’t stop Matughi, the massive talking African warshield, from doing his absolute best to terrorise the students, “WORTHLESS SCAVENGERS!” He screams at each third year as they enter. “YOU WILL ALL BE DESTROYED BY MIGHTY WARRIORS FROM THE SOUTHLANDS! FEAR AND TREMBLE!”

With an array of somewhat frizzy silver blonde ringlets (and curiously black eyebrows) framing an oval face that is just a tint too tan to evoke thoughts of porcelin, Evelynn Lawley is slightly off. She moves with practiced grace and presses her thin, rouge’d lips together in a simpering smile as she passes other people, as if thinking ‘This will make me look kind’. Her robes, rather plain, and shoes, somewhat scuffed, are coupled with a ridiculous amount of metal bangles that could be silver, if only they weren’t obviously charmed to have a glittery sheen. She enters the room with small steps, and then balks at the screaming of the warshield. “Oh!” she says in a falsely high voice, as a boy passes, pressing a hand to her right cheek. “How frightful.”

Nellie Caldwell strides into the classroom, pausing as she enters. She’s never been in a place quite like this. The girl drops her bag next to her and looks around, watching as the other students enter. The third year tries to take in the atmosphere of the room, wondering just how much she is to get out of this course. What had inspired her to take a music class, anyway? Her mum was furious when she found out she’d made this choice, and Nellie is determined to stick to it, regardless.

Gliding into the room with her head held high and her shoulders back, Gertrude walks with the prim decorum and graceful movements, trying her best to imitate those ladies of high breeding and polished style. Running a hair through her chestnut curls, she murmurs something behind Evelynn only to soon find out what is her fellow Slytherin’s distress. Meeting the sound of the bellowing warshield with an audible gasp, she raises a hand to lips and takes a step back. It takes a moment for her to realize that the object isn’t rushing to injure anyone and she gathers herself together with a disparaging sniff. “I can’t believe that something so alarming is allowed to hang where it could bother us.”

Rushing into the classroom, Elizabeth Kerr is at first frightened by the large shield screaming at her, but then decides to yell back at it, “I shall not fear and tremble you, you are just a stupid shield!” She scurries to a chair and drops her things. While trying to tie her messy red curls up with a ribbon, Elizabeth practically falls into the chair.

“Matughi!” Darius finally snaps. “Shut it.” “TRAITOR! YOU TOO–” “Shut it or your splinters will shake on the ground,” Darius smiles at it, and it finally falls silently, glaring at him impudently. With that done, Darius turns to the class and smiles. His name, “Professor Dwight” is written on the chalkboard in orange. “Good afternoon, class. I know it’s been a long day for us all, but welcome to your first class of Wizo-Music. Please ignore Matughi,” he points to the shield, “He is… an old present I was given, that would be rude to dispose of. So we shall have to endure his rudeness.” He smiles broadly. “Now, class. My first instruction is this — Put away your wands. Put away any remembralls, and indeed, anything magic. You may keep, if you wish, spellchecking quills on your desks, but as of now, in this class, you are muggles.” His tone is simultaneously stern and amused.

Evelynn Lawley opens her mouth a little and decides to agree, loudly and melodramatically, “I know, Trudy darling, it’s disgraceful!” She’ll find a seat near Gertrude if at all possible, as long as there is a relatively attractive boy nearby as well. Evelynn flashes very eerily white teeth at Darius as she takes her seat, with a ridiculous “How charming!” As she puts away her things (in a rather disgustingly flowery bag), however, the thirteen (‘fourteen in a week, thank you’) year old girl grimaces.

“Hmm, no wands, this should be interesting… and probably pretty good for me since I normally end up casting spells on myself on accident,” Elizabeth Kerr says to no one in particular as she stuff her wand back into her rather plain khaki colored sack. Suddenly thinking of a question, Elizabeth raises her hand and waves it about eagerly.

Finding a seat before the professor speaks, Gertrude sits as close as possible Eveylnn. Listening intently, she tilts her head just a small amount and smiles in what she thinks must be coy and fetching to her thirteen-year-old self. Tittering at the announcement, she too puts her magical belonging away in a bag that is an exact match of Eveylnn’s. Rearranging her things, she makes sure to have a quill, some ink and parchment out and ready to write notes.

Sitting behind Gertrude, Nellie leans forward a bit, not entirely listening to what Darius is saying, though she doesn’t have any of her things out anyway. “Pst, Hey, Gertrude–” the Gryffindor hisses from behind her. “Is that weird Hufflepuff girl actually your sister?” The thirteen-year-old tries to suppress a grin as she thinks of all the rumors that have gone around. “I mean, she’s so weird…” Nell shakes her head and leans back, quickly yanking a quill and inkwell out of her bag, putting them onto the desk in front of her before leaning forward again to see if Gertrude actually answers.

Darius Dwight coughs to Nellie, but smiles as he does so. “Now, some of you are no doubt wondering — Hang on, didn’t I sign up for Wizo-music? Yes, you did. But muggle music is the foundation of Wizo-Music — Most wizo-music makes use of muggle instruments, it nearly all employs the same notes and timing as muggle music, and indeed, many of the styles of music are the same as well. If you cannot play an instrument yet, you will be learning one this year. If you can, then you’ll be learning a second one. Come next year, we will put that knowledge to use and make accomplished wizo-musicians out of all of you. And yes, Elizabeth?”

“Will we be needing additional instruments? Becuase my father has a collection of African piccolos that we could use. Some of them are hundreds of years old,” Elizabeth Kerr says excitedly. Suddenly, she remembers that her hand is still raised, and abruptly brings it back down to her lap, smiling an awkward smile as she does so.

Evelynn Lawley clasps her hands together and smiles at Darius, looking as if she is barely suppressing a giggle. Briefly, her eyes flicker over to Gertrude, a half sneer quickly covered up by a quick look of sympathy. Either at the mention of her sister or the comment, Evelynn does her best to look supportive of Gertrude’s opinion. Turning halfway in her chair, Evelynn frowns at Nellie for existing. “Shhh!” is hissed. Then back to smiling at Darius in a creepy way, eyebrows raised. She sits up very straight and tries hard to look very interested (and more importantly, more interested than Gertrude) in this concept of learning muggle methods of music first. Elizabeth earns herself a harsh glare.

Clicking her tongue against her teeth, Gertrude murmurs over her shoulder “I have the unfortunate displeasure of being related to her, yes.” Catching Evelynn’s glance, her smile is syrupy as she speaks softly. “Lynnie here is more of a sister than Olivia.” Turning back around, she too clasps her hands together and keeps sitting up straight and attentively, fluttering her lashes at the teacher and smiles showing a hint of white teeth.

“Mmmm, I’m sure,” Nellie Caldwell whispers and leans back, scribbling some things down on her paper, though many of them aren’t exactly relevant to Wizo-Music. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear that.” Nellie says nothing more, but does make a note to herself to remember to let Olivia know that later. Though that’d mean she’d have to figure out who Olivia exactly was. Ah, well. She does finally turn her attention to Darius, though, and actually almost pays attention to what he’s saying.

“Bring them in!” Darius beams to Elizabeth, “The more instruments you can play, the better. An accomplished Wizo-Music teacher must be able to play as many instruments as possible. Otherwise, they can’t do this…” Darius raises his wand and suddenly the instruments all bound into life, swiftly playing the famous, frantic bars of the William Tell overture. Thirty seconds later, he drops his wand back into his sleeve and all of them retreat back into their stands. “Now, let’s begin!” he declares, and grabs a pouch of sand from his conductors stand. Dramatically, he snatches a handful of the sand and throws it out into the middle of the class in a long, straight line before calling, “Scutus silentum!” The sand suddenly hangs in midair, a glittering transparent shield bisecting the class. Darius stands, directly in the middle, “This wall is soundproofed. Students will note that there are a variety of instruments on either side of it. Those students who can play an instrument should move to the left hand side of the class,” he raises an arm to indicate, “And tune up. I will listen to you play soon. Those who can’t play any instruments yet should proceed to the right, and feel free to experiment until you find an instrument that suits you. Begin!”

Evelynn Lawley flashes her smile at Gertrude and then stands. Watching briefly to see where everyone else is going, she moves with smooth steps toward the right side. “I have had lessons of course,” she lies through her teeth, “however I’m afraid Hogwarts has taken up all my time and I couldn’t possibly remember how to play.” Glaring down a smaller girl who had been approaching a flute, Evelynn picks up the silvery instrument and with a lot of show proceeds to make no noise at all. “Oh my.” Her voice rasies, “Pro/fessor Dwight, I believe this flute is broken.” Her bottom lip juts out, “Could you be ever so kind as to come and fix it?” It is, of course, in perfect condition, but Evelynn will probably have to be relegated to something indelicate and embarassing. If she can produce noise at all.

Rising from her seat and walking with practiced stride to the right hand side of the room, Gertrude raises a hand to her lips as she tries to keep from giggling as she passes by Darius. Once there, she nods with false solemnity to Evelynn and gives a simpering smile. “I only took dance lessons but I’ve always been partial to the violin. It’s so pretty.” A shallow reason and she picks up one, not knowing how to the proper method for holding the instrument at all. Lifting the bow, she runs it over the strings and pulls it over. She does make noise, a great deal of horrible sound and she pulls it away indignantly. “Well I never! It isn’t supposed to sound like that at all!” “Mine must be broken as well.”

Bravely, Nellie stands and strides over, picking up a trumpet, looking it over rather quickly. She gives it a rather haphazard blow, creating, well, an awful noise, not even fitting to be called a dying duck sound. “Hmm. Is it supposed to sound like that, Professor?” the girl asks, holding out the offending instrument and examining it. “Maybe I should try one of those… flute things. I saw one once.” The girl is not ashamed to admit that she’s no training in this whatsoever.

Darius Dwight smiles to the three girls having difficulty, and steps to his left. He speaks a number of words to the students on the left side of the class, but his spell blocks the words from being heard to the right. The students who can play instruments nod and ask a few questions, which Darius answers dutifully, and then steps back across to the right. “Now, Ms. Lawley, the flute is a wonderful instrument, but a difficult one. Still, I’m certain we can start you off right.” He reaches around her and clasps her tiny hands in his massive paces, tenderly placing her fingers in the right spots, and says, “Now, hold your fingers there, and blow across here, not too forcefully.” Moving on, he smiles to Gertrude and declares, “The violin is not a simple instrument, Gertrude. But it can be a marvelous one. Hold it under your chin like so,” he takes another one from behind his conductors stand, a larger one, and demonstrates, “And practice moving the bow across like this.” A simple, pretty note results. “It will take practice, but if you want to play the violin, we will have you playing well before the year is out. Alternatively, try the guitar.” He points to one of the guitars out, “Which is a simpler string instrument in many ways.” Walking over to Nellie, he smiles and shakes his head, “No, it’s not meant to sound like that, but don’t back away from it. Soon you will make it sound like a victory call. You need to purse your lips…” he takes the trumpet from her and demonstrates, letting out a single trumpet blast, before wiping it with a cloth and handing it back to her. “Did you see how I did that?”

Evelynn Lawley waves the flute at Nellie and says in a strained voice, “Of course you can’t play a flute Nellie Caldwell, it’s only for ladies.” Her teeth grit together at the sound Gertrude makes with the violin, but a saccherine, “Oh, Trudy, isn’t it just our luck to get the broken ones?” A glance to the Gryffindor implies that her attrociousness is skill based. It’s just about now that Darius gets to helping her, and she blushes a little as he arranges her hands, forgetting entirely to smile and bat her eyelashes and in general be rather disturbing. Briefly, it seems as though she might learn something, nodding quietly as he explains. Trying again, she produces a low, hollow noise but not at all the proper sound of a flute. And then a soft ‘gack’, but that’s from her mouth. She pouts toward Gertrude, who got a first name, and flourishes the flute again, desperate to make a pretty noise and (from the way she’s got her shoulders pulled back and head a little titled), look pretty doing it. Neither works.

For many of her classes Gertrude can’t be bothered to really pay attention or care, but there are a few things she’ll put her heart into and for the time, when Darius demonstrates, she bothers. Seething eyes glare upon Evelynn when the Professor helps her by actually rearranging her hands. It is only when he turns to help her own self and addresses her by her first name that she’s all smiles and giggles, listening and watching before trying to correct her own method of supporting the instrument. “No thank you Professor, I’d much prefer to stay with the violin.” Lifting the bow, she tries again only to produce another sound, not half so pretty as Darius’ example.

“Ladies, my foot,” Nellie mutters, glancing to Evelyn with a bit of an eyeroll. “That’s… interesting,” the Gryffindor comments, looking at the trumpet rather leerily. “Maybe I could try that flute,” she considers, not looking back to the two snotty girls behind her. She does lean in towards Darius, though, and puts her hand to her face carefully, whispering as if in confidence, “Just, you know, so I can show them how to do it.” She grins and leans back away from him again, looking over all the various instruments that there are to choose from.

Smiling widely to Nellie, Darius confirms happily, “Go ahead. Try as many as you like. I need to go and observe the students who already have some musical knowledge, see where they’re at.” As he almost crosses the corner, he calls, “Five points to Gryffindor for Nellie’s excellent learning attitude, and knowing what a good worksman never does.”

Evelynn Lawley sucks in her breath and tries really hard to look like she’s not contemplating murder. She grips the flute so hard when she finally lets it go there are imprints on her fingers from the holes. Rather than giving it up to Nellie or anyone else who may want to try the flute(as if her’s were the only one), Evelynn practically slams it back down from where she got it and stalks over to a french horn, nostrils flaring. Holding it by sheer accident the right way, Evelynn puts her prim little lips to the mouthpiece and blows. It makes a very rude-sounding noise, and she lets up a desperate little wail, “This is impossible!” Nevermind she’s tried all of two instruments (and probably left lipstick on both, how kind).

Focused now on her own attempts at making music, Gertrude is happily oblivious to most of the other students. Her third attempt at producing something outside of a heart-wrenching scream from the strings is unmet and her frustration is growing by the second. Pulling the violin away from her chin, she takes a deep breath and tries again, biting her bottom lip very hard throughout the whole process.

“She’s probably broken it now,” Nellie scoffs and picks up one that hasn’t been yet used by her classmates. The small instrument doesn’t make much more than a low hiss and a rather ugly one at that. Shrugging, she puts it down, never really moving far away from the trumpet, which she quickly comes back to. Picking it up and getting a feel for it a bit, she gives it another blow. It doesn’t sound any better, but she seems to feel interested in the instrument nevertheless. “I think I like this one,” she comments to nobody in particular.

Darius Dwight spends more time with the other half of the class, taking them through the steps and offering pointers. A few students cross the floor and pick up new instruments, practicing as well. Finally, Darius returns to the experimenters, helping a few out with their final choices, and then waves his wand at the sand which falls to the ground. Sensing a chance, Matughi, bellows, “FOOLISH CH–” before Darius throws sand at him and he suddenly goes silent. “Much better,” Darius smiles, and says to his whole class. “Before we go, let’s talk a bit about this subject. What makes a piece a Wizo-Music piece, as opposed to a normal musical piece? Let’s say I had two groups, one a muggle band, the other a single wizard, playing a song behind a curtain. The band played with their hands, like you have today. The wizard plays all the instruments himself, using his wand. How would you ever tell them apart?”

Taking the trumpet and leaning against a desk, Nellie glances around at her peers. She slowly raises her hand, looking rather perplexed. She glances around, however, rather hoping that someone else looks more sure than her, since she is more unsure than she is sure of the answer she’s thought of. Perhaps one of the Slytherin girls would have a stroke of brilliance, and she wouldn’t have to worry about answering.

Putting her violin back in place, Gertrude looks around the room to see if anyone else is going to volunteer and raise their hand. Waiting a breath, she lifts her hand into the air just a fraction after Nellie does and then lowers it again when she sees that she’s second. Maybe someone else can answer better and she’s done enough of screwing up with the attempts at making music.

Nobody’s hand goes up. The classroom remains silent, and Darius finally asks? “Nobody? That’s a shame. I’d have loved to know what the answer is.” He grins wide, and there’s a ripple of relief as a few students get it, “I don’t either, children. I’ve spent my whole life around musicians, wizards and muggles alike. And one thing that’s always surprised me is that so many of the Wizo-Musicians treat themselves as higher artists than the muggle ones, but never actually seem to know what Wizo-Music is, other than just muggle music produced by magic.” He flips out a golden pocket watch, and declares, “And now it’s time for you lot to go get some dinner. Think about what I’ve said, and go on. See you next time.” He smiles, and waves them off.

Replacing the trumpet to where it belongs, Nellie skips back to where her things are, carefully replacing them into her bag, and slings it over her back. She doesn’t give either of the Slytherins in front of her a second look as she happily makes her way out of the classroom. “I can’t wait until the next class,” Nellie Caldwell comments to whoever happens to be exiting near her and heads to the Great Hall for supper.

Relieved at not being called on, Gertrude returns to her seat to gather her belongings. Picking up her bag and slinging the wide strap over one shoulder, she smiles to Darius “Thank you for a great class Professor Dwight!” Turning away quickly, she blushes and giggles, taking up with a few other girls as she speaks in low and hurried whispers.

Evelynn Lawley has apparently settled upon the French horn, even though it sounds as if a bag of cats is being stepped on no matter what she does. At least that’s a sound. Pouting, she plays with one of her curls while watching Darius, quite out of her fluttering glances and vaguely predatory smiles. Once they’ve been dismissed, she flounces out of her chair, if at all possible, and goes to retrieve her bag. “Thank you, Professor.” She sulks out of the room, trailing after Gertrude and the others.

Eva Fallon seems run off her feet already. It’s the morning before the sorting, the shop, though now pristine, has been a riot. Her children are now downstairs with her, and other people’s children are still trickling in and out of the shop, purchasing some last-minute sweets. The shop does seem eerily neat for a day like today, though Eva‘s cousin may have had some help at keeping it so. “I’m glad sorting at Hogwarts is only once a year, Maura,” Eva emits with a sigh and plops onto a stool behind the counter, rocking Arnold’s cribby with her foot.

Outside, Diagon Alley is abuzz with shoppers making last-minute purchases – and Sibyl Wexler seems to have enough energy to match them all put together. With one hand firmly wrapped around her husband’s arm and the other clutching her daughter, the Hogwarts nurse bustles through the door of the candy shop at top speed. “Just a few, Briony,” she admonishes. “Enough for the train ride, and no more – you don’t want to spoil your appetite for the feast!” Sibyl‘s face, already naturally ruddy, is even redder than usual with the remnants of a sunburn – the last souvenir of a late-summer holiday. That, and the conspiratorial smile that she shoots at her husband, and the way she keeps affectionately close to his side, even amid the chaos of back-to-school shopping.

“Maybe not even quite that much, Briony. Don’t make your brother and sister jealous.” Basil pauses a moment in thought. “Actually, it’s your job to get some for both of them now.” He smiles down affectionately at Sibyl, a touch of sadness in his eyes. He realized over the summer just how much he had missed his wife, and now she was headed back to Hogwarts for another year. “Can’t we just forget when the train leaves, Sibyl?” he asks slyly, a smile just barely touching his lips.

Andy Carver shuffles into Cordial Confections through the crowd, leaving his parents outside, to get his required stock of sweets for the travel and his first days in Hogwarts. He tries to fight his way to the showcase to ponder what sweets to purchase. As he does not get a glimpse on one single piece of candy he tries to slip between to adults which obviously seem to be Briony’s parents.

A small whirlwind dressed in an emerald robe breezes into the candy store. Kara finally slows some when she realizes just how crowded it was inside. Purse in one hand, purring silver kitten in the other, the new Hogwarts student heads straight for the chocolate frog display. Those collected she meanders around the store, adding iced mice and acid pops to her growing collection.

“Alright, mum,” Briony responds to her mother, hardly hearing her father’s addition. Something about her siblings. Briony‘s off waving frantically at her aunt. “Auntie Eva! I’m a second year now! I’m going to try out for Quidditch, too. Mum and Dad let me get a broom! Isn’t it exciting!” With that, Briony snatches a bag off of the counter where Eva keeps them, and starts gathering the sweets that she wants for the trip.

Feeling like he’ll never be free of his chattering sisters from now on, Gabriel walks, both hands on his head, clasping chunks of hair as the twins trail him. What if they were sorted into his house? He’d have to listen to this for his remaining years at Hogwarts! Although… it would be good to have some family nearby, after what news their mother has recently told him. Gabe’s not been out much since that awful day. “Alright, we’re here. We don’t have a lot of time so try to be quick about it.” Opening the door with a sigh, Gabriel puts on a brave face in case Briony is inside.

It’s been a long final day before Hogwarts for the young Saphia Bona. Yes, her mother had finally given her blessing to Saphia‘s magical education, but had, in response, demanded an ever greater amount of her free time to be spent with family and what she dubbed the ‘real world’. As such, much of the shopping that had been spread out over weeks for her first year had been spent in a day this time — AND she no longer got preferential treatment at Flourish and Blotts anymore now that Ms. Rosemont had quit. While Ms. Rosemont had assured Saphia this was all for the best, and she was happier quitting, Saphia knew in her heart it wasn’t true. How could Ms. Rosemont ever be happier away from books? And so, loaded with new equipment and books (twenty-three new books, to be precise) Saphia had broken away from her father for a final diversion in pursuit of treats for the train, a relaxing pause, and that elusive Roderick Plumpton card!

Yawning and rubbing his eyes Chris walks into the store, the usual site of his small black kitten following closely behind him, looking tired as well. He smiles as the scent of the candy reaches his nose, he looks down at his kitten, “Maybe some sugar will wake us up, Magik.” The kitten gives a small happy mew in response.

Olivia Baxtor strolls in, looking around the busy shop, her face looking rather pensive. “Come now, Olivia, go in,” her mother beckons, and Olivia has little other choice than to make her way all the way into the busy shop. Her brother Christian, a sixth year, follows her, pushing past to get to the sweets, and her sisters Gertrude and Helen, both third years, come after him, sneaking past Olivia to get some sweets for themselves. “Get some things, but quickly, children, we’ve got to go to the train soon!” Olivia starts into the shop and glances at all of the candies, picking a piece here and there. To tell the truth, the girl is not all that fond of sweets.

Kassandra never really was addicted to sweets, but as she did not trust the Hogwarts Express food cart, she decided to get a small amount of energy supply at the sweets shop. Losing her gracious posture for a moment at the sight of another crowded place she crosses the room towards the counter, where the denseness is at its maximum and pushes a small piece of parchment out of her right robe pocket, not to forget a single piece of her shopping’s previously selected composition.

“We most certainly can not just forget what time the train leaves!” Sibyl Wexler retorts to her husband, giving him a reproachful nudge in the side with her elbow. But her tone is softened by a grin, and a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Only one bag, Briony-love!” Sibyl calls after her eldest daughter, as Briony skips off to the other side of the shop. “Eva! Good to see you! How are you feeling, dear?” There are too many people between Sibyl and the shopkeeper for her to do much more than wave – and give her husband another nudge, prompting him to do the same. The door jingles open again behind her – spotting Gabriel among the cluster of children entering, Sibyl turns to look over her shoulder, stretching her hand out towards her daughter’s friend. “Gabriel dear, over here!” She switches effortlessly back and forth between each of the people she is addressing, giving each an equal share of her warm, comfortable smile.

“Don’t take too long kids, the train leaves in a while! You don’t want to miss it!” Eva smiles all around as the children all seem to understand this as they rush around gathering sweets. Eva prepares herself for a rush. “Hello, Basil, Sibyl,” Eva calls to her relations, nodding as Briony chatters at her then quickly runs off. “Avery, hello! Hi, Gabriel, girls.” So many people to say hello to! “I’m feeling wonderful, Sibyl, thanks for asking! It seems to me you must be feeling fine. Look at that suntan!” Eva giggles a bit and leans against the counter, surveying the commotion in her shop.

Hearing her friend’s name, Briony‘s head pops up out of the crowd, so to speak, as she tries to find the boy. “Gabriel, where are you? Isn’t it exciting! We’re going back to school! Mum and dad bought me a broom!” Briony giggles gleefully as she pushes her way through the hoardes of children trying to find the one she know. “Hi, Gabriel. Ready for school this year? You get to play Quidditch, right?” Briony smiles widely at him.

Finally Andy reaches the immense sweets counter and sees Briony doing the same. “Hello Briony, did you have nice holidays?” he nearly has to shout because of the distance between them, while he is selecting his sweets and putting them into his already well-filled paperbag, looking to her from time to time.

Saphia Bona smiles as her tiny scops owl, Mina, flutters to her shoulder and nuzzles against Saphia‘s face happily as she wanders the store, picking up a packet of sugar quills, a packet of fizzing whizzbees, five ice mice, and, of course, an entire box of chocolate frogs. Sidling up to the counter, Saphia offers her best smile for Eva and whispers, “Good morning, Ms. Fallon!”

Kara Raine continues wandering around the shop, the ever growning pile of sweets becoming more difficult to manage. A few of the other new students are recognized from the other day, and Kara heads toward Chris with a grin. “Chris! Hi, I met you the other day in here, Kara remember? How are you and Magik? I did end up getting a kitten after all, this here is Silver.” The gray ball of fur opens her eyes at the name and meows happily. “Anyway, just wanted to say hi, grabbing some last minute things for the train you know. Hopefully I’ll see you there?”

The shop is so loud that Olivia almost can’t handle the commotion. She takes a few select types of candy and joins her family at the counter. “This is all I’m having, thank you,” the girl states politely, placing her selections up onto the counter to be bagged. As soon as the sweets are paid for, Olivia‘s mother is hustling the four Baxtor children out the door to get to the train in enough time. It seems as soon as she’s entered the shop, Olivia is pushed back out of it, protesting rather loudly that they’ll wrinkle her new skirt, but the family’s voices fade as they head towards the train station.

Kassandra swiftly gets inbetween the crowd, which is besieging the sweets counter. She shovels a few Liquorice Wands and Chocoballs into her bag, heads for the cash, pays and leaves the store.

Ignoring his sisters for the time being (they didn’t need his help choosing candy anymore, that was for sure), Gabriel looks over to Sibyl as she greets him. In his present state of fragile emotions, it somehow feels like anything could set him off again, and he doesn’t like the way he feels when he thinks about his parents’ split. Walking over to Briony’s mum, his first instinct is to hug her around the middle (because surely she knows by now), but he forcefully denies himself of that, responding with a nod and a quick, “Oh, hi.” Then, as Briony calls to him, he follows the sound of her too-familiar voice, finally finding her in the crowd. “Hi Bri. I’m… yeah, I’m ready for the year I guess.” Lies, but now wasn’t the time to tell Briony the bad news, especially with several hours of talking time ahead of them on the train. He hardly wanted to shout news like this. “That’s great, about the broom I mean,” he says with a nod. “Yeah, my mum decided to let me play again. She was probably just shocked when I got hurt or something. You know how mums overreact.” Oh the allowances of a now guilt-ridden mother.

Chris Jitsunari smiles seeing a familiar face. He waves as sees Kara and walks over. ” Hi, just got back from Hogsmeade, me and Magik were exploring wizarding communities before the term starts.” He reaches down and picks up Magik. Magik meows happily, the fear of getting stepped on now fading. He looks at the small silver kitten. “She’s cute.” He grabs a few chocolate frogs, pepper imps and ice mice as he talks.

“Yes, I understand,” Briony nods. “I’m so glad you can play!” Before she can think to stop herself, Briony stretches her arms out to hug her friend happily. “We’ll have our best year yet!” The girl beams at her friend, turning her head only as she hears another voice call to her. “Oh, hello, Andy!” the girl waves and steps back a bit from Gabriel, pausing a moment as she looks at him. Something’s not right, but the girl isn’t sure what. Perhaps he has a cold. “Alright, alright, dad, I’m working on it!” Briony tells her father as he beckons to her to hurry. “We’ve got to go to the train soon. Promise you’ll sit with me, okay, Gabe-y?” Briony flashes a wide smile at him and waves to Andy again. “I’ll see you on the train!” she calls across the shop and takes her selections to her aunt for payment.

The little boy is gone too quickly – Sibyl Wexler only has time to give him a quick, comforting touch on the shoulder as he rushes by. The nurse watches him go, her maternal smile tinged with sadness now, but she nods with approval as she watches Briony’s interaction with Gabriel. “Almost time to go, Briony!” Sibyl calls after her daughter. “And for me too, Basil,” she adds, giving her husband’s arm another affectionate squeeze. “But we’ll be back before you know it.”

The rush of people outside and the talk of the train, prompts Kara to hurry as well, her items quickly paid for at the counter, chatting to Chris the whole time. “I went into Magical Menagarie and got pounced by her. She was so cute I just couldn’t resist and my parents said it was my choice so. Anyway, I here them calling, best get to the station!” With a small wave bye to Eva and a grin for Chris, she practically runs out the door.

Chris Jitsunari he waves as Kara leaves. All the comotion reminding him to hurry as well. He grabs a few more treats before paying. He looks down to Magik, “Well, we better get going if we plan to catch the train.” He pops a piece of fudge into his mouth as he leaves.

“See you there!” Andy calls after Briony. He had expected a longer conversation, but in the hurry to get to the train, he thought this kind would be better. After having filled and payed his load of sweets he goes to the exit and leaves in pleased anticipation.

“I’ll see you all when you’re back on Holiday, of course!” Eva chuckles as she quickly and deftly calculates orders and takes the monies from her best patrons (the children, of course!) “Hurry now, hurry, don’t want to miss the train!” Eva‘s bagging orders faster now than they are headed up to the counter and the woman slips a few extra pieces of candy into many of the bags. “Have a good year, Briony. Write to me about Quidditch. Make sure you do,” with that, Briony is gone back to her parents. “I’ll see you all soon, promise me!” Eva‘s waves are almost constant as students leave as quickly as they entered.

Saphia Bona smiles to Ms. Fallon even as she receives little more than a hasty nod for her response, and gathers the candy into a bag before heading out. The station awaits!

“Alright, come on you two, before I get emotional like those mums on the platform.” He kisses Sibyl’s cheek affectionatey and starts to walk out of the shop, following Briony’s lead. “Slow down, Briony! Wait for us!” He shakes his head as he steps a bit quicker trying to keep up with his over-exhuberant daughter. “Christmas Holiday can’t come soon enough,” Basil laments quietly as they make their way to the train station.

Marie-Anna Greyton pushes her trolly through the barrier and onto Platform 9 and 3 quarters, following behind her is her younger look-alike, Matthew Greyton, behind him appear Mr. and Mrs Greyton. Both Marie and Matthew look around the platform, when the elder Greyton woman turns to the middle daughter. “Now, Marie-Anna, you’ll look after your brother, won’t you?” is questioned, as Marie nods. “Of course, Mother, I do ever year, don’t I?” she questions, rolling her eyes.

Andy Carver stumbles in and puts his case into the luggage net over his seat. “Hey, Briony!” he greets. “Those exploding bonbons are the best I’ve ever tasted! Did you get some either?” Andy face is gleaming as he finally found one of the housemates he knows better in the train and flops into the seat, sinking into it relaxedly, until he remembers to look for his parents outside.

“No, I didn’t get any of those, Andy,” Briony answers as she gets herself situated, with her kitten sleeping peacefully at her side. “Be quiet, though, Whimsy is sleepy.” The girl giggles a bit. “I like the licorice wands best. And the peppermint toads.” She beams at her housemate as she finally settles into the seat closest to the door. “Did you have a good summer, Andy?

Andy does not know what to say as he is told to shut up. But then the knut drops and he chuckles. “Oh yes, wonderful summer. Playing chess with my father, barbecueing with the family… The only good thing was that I saved a horse, but that’s another story…” With the last words he headshakes slightly and then gets a glimpse of his parents. He stands up and waves keenly until they notice him.

“You saved a horse? That’s nifty,” Briony exclaims, her eyes lighting up. “I’ve never ridden a horse. Have you? What’s it like?” The girl giggles a bit as she forgets her own orders to stay quiet. Whimsy seems undisturbed, though. “I got to spend a lot of time with my Auntie Eva and her kids, and I even got to babysit! Isn’t that wild? I’ve never been allowed before. Mum and dad went on a vacation, but they went without me. I was disappointed, but Auntie Eva kept us busy, and they brought back souvenirs for us.” The girl chatters on as if she hasn’t talked all summer.

Felicity Wexler pushes her way in to the cabin with a small moan, desperately trying to get out of the path of the crushing sea of students behind her seeking out a compartment to reunite with old aquaintences. Sliding the door a bit more forcefully than is perhaps needed, and ducking in without checking, Felicity exhales a great, thankful sigh as door drifts closed behind her. “Oh, thank goodness! I thought–” As her gaze lifts and falls upon Briony, however, her voice falls short.

The door to the compartment pushes open again, and high up, Eliza Marlowe‘s head pokes around the edge. “Hey there,” she says, with an easy grin. “Looks like you’ve got some room in here – mind if I join?” Yes, the seventh-year girl is asking the consent of students much younger than herself, and there is not the slightest hint of a patronizing or self-conscious note in her voice. One long arm reaches out to push the door the rest of the way open, and Eliza steps in, continuing, “Hardly any room to move in any of the other compartments.” She tosses her head, easily shrugging off the inconvenience.

“Hello Felicity!” Andy greets, blushing a bit. “How was your summer?” and turning to Briony “Well it was more accidentally. I got to know that our neighbour’s horse was to be killed, because its owner needed money. So I wanted to see it in its last night and then when I opened the door it rushed out besides me. It was perfectly dreadful at this moment. But later on I saw it on another feedlot. I talked to the owner and asked about the horse and he said he had a riding school and as I told him my story he now lets me ride it whenever I want to.” Andy seems to have become more elaborate during summer and as he ends his tellings, he is panting a bit.

“That’s brilliant, Andy,” Briony smiles to her friend, deliberately not looking at Felicity. “Hello Miss Marlowe,” the girl greets the Hufflepuff student. “You were brilliant in Quidditch last year. I hope I can fly like you do. I desperately want to play Quidditch this year. I’ve wanted to ever since I was ten. Gabriel Goden told me all about it before he went off to school.” The girl beams and giggles a bit, though sucking up to the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain will do her little good in terms of getting onto Quidditch herself.

“Hey, Carver!” Eliza calls to Andy, as she takes stock of who is in the cabin. “Good to see you again.” She reaches up easily to sling her duffel bag onto the overhead luggage rack, and grins down at Briony’s enthusiastic greeting. “Oh, don’t worry about the Miss Marlowe,” she replies, waving the title away with an easy shrug and a brush of her hand. “It’s just Eliza. But thanks.” Despite her casual attitude, she can’t help but grin a little more broadly in response to the compliment. Eliza folds herself into a seat, stretching her long legs out to rest on the seat across from her. “You’re in Gryffindor, right? They’ve got a few spots open this year – I’m sure you’ll have a chance.”

“And what did you do during the holidays, Felicity?” Andy glances into her eyes, feeling a bit between the frontiers of Briony and her.

Riley Markham hardly glances at the card before moving to hand it back to Kitty, giving a great, heaving sigh of mixxed worry and disgust. “Aye, fine. S’my Gran. She an’ I.. well,” he sighs, all that worry and fear he’d been holding up raging back to the surface. “She worried me, today.. something she said. Can’t figure it out.. Eh,” Riley looks up, as the train stops.. “We’re ‘ere, eh.” And he rises, non-challantly, to pull down and carry he and Saphia’s things off the train.

“Your gran is on a Wizard Card?” Katherine stares at Riley in a mixture of sympathy and awe

Keelan Walsh is standing on the platform looking, as she is, quite tall and a bit odd, given the shadows cast upon her from the lamp she’s carrying. “First years!” calls the Herbology professor, “If all first years could please come over here, I’ll be taking you to the Castle.” The woman smirks a little, but is really quite busy calling for the students. “First years!!”

Lyre King cowers next to his bags. “There, there he is! The ogre!” He points over at a large boy carrying a rucksack, who is boarding a carriage.

“Wow, Riley, your grandma’s on a card?” David is amazed at the news, too.

Marie-Anna Greyton watches as all the first years move to follow Keelan, meanwhile she moves towards the carriages. The sixth year quietly awaits for the younger students to board the carriages before she too boards one.

“Yeah,” Riley mutters, not bothering to ask if Saphia would like him to carry her luggage, stepping behind her and picking up for her after she’s dragged it a way. Hauling heavy things was something he was actually fairly good at. He seems more than slightly annoyed, though more at his own reaction than the question.. “Yeah, she was a famous curse-breaker, did some ivestment things for Gringotts, helped a lot of rich people get richer. But she said somethin to me today..” He drops the luggage off in the entry wing, following the rest in to the great hall.. “Something odd.. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it worries the stuffing outta me..” And then, as he steps in to the great hall.. he looks up, across the room to the faculty table. “Oh, sweet Jesus.. I’m in hell..”

(Gryffindor) Briony Wexler takes her seat at the Gryffindor table, looking around at the room. Well, it seems same enough, despite the rumors she had heard that everything had changed. “Who are all of those people?” Briony was obviously not listening very well at the end of year feast. The girl was far too excited for Summer to pay attention. “New teachers already? Wow, do we get new ones every year?” The girl giggles as she looks at all the new faces one by one, trying to figure out whether she’ll like them or not.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton is already settled at the table, excited to see who the new first years will be. “I don’t know, it appears like it, though,” she states, with a laugh and a smile. “I’m sure they’ll be nice, for the most part…ish,” the prefect laughs a little.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler sits quietly at her place at the Gryffindor table, opposite Andy. Her expression curiously muted, despite the efforts she clearly took to make her hair cooperate for longer than fiveteen minutes or so.

Keelan Walsh strides in, not even having shucked her cloak, and moves quickly to the faculty table. She’s still, in fact, got the lantern she was using to light the way, though that at least has been put out. Despair, oh haters of Herbology (and members of Ravenclaw), Keelan Walsh has not drowned in the lake.

With students settled at their respective House tables, the doors to the Great Hall let in one, final person. Head of Gryffindor and Charms Professor Erica Calwern enters the Great Hall with the Sorting Hat lightly held in her grasp. She makes her way gracefully between the tables and up to the dias which hosts the faculty tables and a lone, dark oak stool. Tattered, torn, patched, and frayed, the professor still treats the Hat with the utmost respect as she gently places it upon the stool. Turning, she bows to the table, head lowered and right hand sweeping towards the ground. Standing and directing herself to Melvina in particular, she addresses the new Headmistress, “Good evening, Professor Prichard. I believe we are ready to greet our newest residents.”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton grins a little. “Yes! The firs years will be out soon,” is noted as she see’s Professor Calwern enter with the hat.

Darius Dwight looks over the Ravenclaw table, noting a loud groan coming from their direction at the appearance of Professor Walsh. Many, including one boy in particular, seem utterly disconsolate.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver “Ooh, here they come.” Andy says excitedly.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton grins as she waits, watching all the first years enter. “They’re so cute. Was I that cute when I got here? I know all you guys where,” she laughs a bit.

Dolly Faeden gasps out loud at the Great Hall and actually stops in her tracks to stare at the ceiling. “I’ve got to learn tae do that!” is her decided proclaimation. She seems not to notice as she’s somewhat left behind by the group that is, of course, still moving.

Angelo Grey enters the great hall and a face of amazement comes from within. He looks up, turns around, several times, as if spinning in the same place, trying to grasp the entirety of this hall. “Wow…” he says, dreamily.

Erica Calwern awaits patiently and with a warm smile next to the Sorting Hat which both stand upon the dias at the front of the room. As many new students filter in from the waiting room, they create a single line upon the dias, forming a living barrier between the faculty and the returning students.

Rawnie Weller stares up at the magical ceiling nearly falling onto her backside made dizzy by the beauty of it. “Blimey!” Is all the little redhead can think to utter before actually taking a small spill forward due to Vertigo, poor girl.

Kara Raine follows the others into the Great Hall, eyes wide. “Oh my, oh my.” Swallowing nerviously, she moves forward falling into line, hands clenching and unclenching the sides of her robes.

Kassandra Verkooyen Kassandra Verkooyen almost floats into the Great Hall, decently looking at the enchanted ceiling, always keeping up with the group of first-years and standing still among the others.

Sara O‘Shay quirks a brow, for all that she may not like Rawnie, she doesn’t want anyone to mess up her sorting. “You alright?” she questions of Miss Weller. “I suppose it can be a little overwhelming.”

Standing on the dais, Aisling can appreciate how many people there are in the hall, and, as such, how many eyes there are upon her. Seeing Rawnie tumble down, she steps over to her and kneels next to her. “Are you alright?” she inquires, hand resting upon her plait like usual.

Chris Jitsunari joins in the awe. He looks up at the enchanted celing and then at all the returning students, not sure how to take it all in. “The books about this place don’t even come close to the actual experience.”

Rawnie Weller stand up and brushes her robes off. A small glare is given to Sara. “Im arright….. I just got a little dizzy from lookin up too fast s’all….” She didn’t need help from a girl who called her a halfling. Whatever that is. She nods to Aisling too. “Im arright.”

Dolly Faeden scuttles up on the dias with a start, eyes still turned upward. “Aye…” is her breathless response to Chris’s comment.

Sara O‘Shay nods a little before stepping back into the queue, not that she’d stepped out any. “Good,” she states, simply.

Heat O‘Leary glances upward momentarily towards the ceiling before he lowers his gaze, a minor shiver rocking his frame. He looked towards the sorting hat and continued the hurried attempts at fixing his hair, brushing longer pieces behind his ears with his fingers.

Aisling O‘Cormac looks down the line and exclaims, looking at the hat, “Rawnie, Kass, Lyre, it’s the hat that boy was talking about! Maybe this won’t be so bad after all… Although, he did say it tests you, or something… I hope I know the right answers.”

(Gryffindor) Briony watches as the first years walk in. This is her first year watching the sorting, and the girl is fascinated to see how it takes place from an external perspective.

With a flick of her wand towards the Waiting Room doors, Erica has them shut behind the final new student entering the hall. As if on silent cue, she also steps away from the hat, giving herself a distance of a few feet from the worn old thing.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles a little, watching. “It’s always fun, watching a sorting, kind of chaotic,” is given, with a laugh before she quiets to listen to teh hat.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton grins and puffs up at Gryffindors part of the Sorting song.

Angelo Grey smiles in awe as the sorting hat sings his song. Letting out a silent chuckle, he seem exhilirating.

Rawnie Weller claps out loud as the Hat’s song comes to a close. “Brilliant! Blood amazing! That shabby ol hat can sing! Thats even better than movin pictuers with frog guts!” She nearly yells almost too loudley.

Kara Raine giggles, dimples appearing as she smiles. “It sings, nice little tune too. Maybe this won’t be as bad as they said, yes?”

Wincing at the loudness of Rawnie’s comment, Aisling stands quietly in the line awaiting further instructions. “I hope so.” she mutters to Kara.

Lyre King shakes his head. “I’m not so sure. A hat that can sing could probably do other things, too!”

Sara O‘Shay listens quietly to the song, and so she remains quiet as she awaits for the sorting to begin.

Kassandra Verkooyen smiles. “I think he cannot be as bad as they said. He sang a splendid song.”

Dolly Faeden watches the hat in awe. “It is a hat, and it can talk.” Her eyes go wider and wider and then turn toward Professor Calwern, not quite taking in the whole row of faculty in their chairs.

Kassandra Verkooyen smoothes out her robe while there still is time to do it. In a few minutes she will be in front of all these more experienced people and she wants to make a good impression, even with that clumsy old hat on her head.

Erica Calwern brushes a gloved hand over her brow before slipping her wand back up her sleeve. Walking back towards the hat, she summons the scroll from her place at the faculty table. Unfurling it, she announces, “It is about time we begin, I believe. Faeden, Dolly!”

Dolly Faeden looks startled when her name is called, as though she had no sense of alphabet. Almost automatically comes, “It’s Fi-jen, actually.” An offhand comment to Professor Calwern that will likely as not fail to sink in until much later. She steps up, picks up the hat and places it gingerly upon her head, trying to sit at the same time. A near miss, but Dee makes it to the stool. And waits.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton quietly applauds for the new Ravenclaw. “I do wonder, who many Gryffindors will we get this year…”

Rawnie Weller claps for Dolly smileing brightly. She nearly shreiks out “Did it hurt?!?” Well she really wanted to know.

(Gryffindor) “I hope they are sorted carefully.” Andy Carver replies with a blink.

Dolly Faeden turns about four shades of pink and removes the hat unsteadily. She doesn’t meet Professor Calwern’s eye and instead scurries off toward the… wait, which table is she supposed to scurry toward? There’s a pause and she decides the one with cheering people, Merlin willing, will be correct. Eep, Sorted!

Running a finger down her list, the Charms Professor comments on Dolly’s sorting, “Fitting. Let’s see if she corrects me in class.” Erica regards the next name before announcing, “Grey, Angelo!”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton nods towards Andy. “Oh, I whole heartedly agree with you, there, Mister Carver,” she states, chuckling a little.

Angelo Grey trembles at the mention of his name. He walks towards the dirty old hat, shivering, but making an effort to maintain his pose. As he paces silently, time seems to stretch to him. It’s taking so long… He looks at all the people gazing at him, controling his nerves. He picks up the hat and puts it on his head.

(Gryffindor) “I know it’s an important tradition, this whole hat-thing, but I’m dying of hunger. I could not find my sweets in the train, can you imagine?” Andy Carver whispers complaining.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton eeks. “Here, I have some left over,” she states, offering Andy some harmless candy that won’t have any side effects.

(Gryffindor) “Oh, how awful!” Briony laments with him. “I might have some left from my Auntie’s sweet shop if you want some,” the girl offers generously.

Angelo Grey steps down shivering, but visibly happy. He aproaches the table, looking for a place to sit, making an effort to stay on his legs.

Angelo Grey steps down shivering, but visibly happy. He aproaches the Hufflepuff table, looking for a place to sit, making an effort to stay on his legs

(Gryffindor) Taking a piece from each side offered to him Andy ponders which to eat first and decides to gobble down one of Briony’s peppermint toads first. “Hum…fank u.” he says to both of them and cough hard as he breathes in a piece of candy as the hat blasts out Angelo’s house.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton grins. “No problem,” is given by the prefect as she watches the younger boy breath in the candy. “Do be careful though, no need to choke on it,” is given as she quietly applauds for Angelo as well.

First Angelo to Hufflepuff then a spat of Gryffindors who all chitter as they make their way to their new House tables. Then, a Slytherin. Each, called and sorted yet Erica‘s voice never tires or wanes as she announces the next name, “Jitsunari, Chris!” She can’t help but glance over at the Ravenclaw table and one Miss Dolly Faedon as another difficult to pronounce name comes up.

Erica Calwern doublechecks her scroll and mutters, “I will need glasses if the secretary prints these names any smaller.” Louder, she announces to the room, “King, Lyre!”

Lyre King is the sort that has to be reminded to move. When his name is called, someone has to shove him in the shoulder, as he is staring at the cieling. As soon as he is reminded, he breaks into a jog to make up for any time he lost daydreaming. He picks up the hat, sits down, and places it on his head.

Lyre King hops off the stool, drops the hat on it, and goes to sit with his new housemates.

(Gryffindor) “Uh, another another of that sort.” Andy mumbles, unusually dismissive, maybe influenced by his housemates’ points of view. As he hears his own words he gets quite a remorse.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton eyes Andy. “What do you mean, another of that sort?” she questions of the second year. “There’s nothing wrong with Slytherin,” this comes from the Gryffindor known to like Slytherins.

Erica Calwern watches twins get separate with the slice of the Hat’s opinion. The boy heads off to Slytherin, the girl to Gryffindor. The professor doesn’t miss a beat as she calls out, “Raine, Kara!”

Kara Raine looks up at her name, gray eyes wide in surprise. Taking a deep breath, she steps forward just knowing that all eyes are on her, and in a single graceful motion sits upon the stool while placing the hat upon her head. Wincing slightly, she waits for something to happen.

Kara Raine visibly sighs before grinning broadly, quickly hopping down and rushing over to take her place at the Ravenclaw house table.

A Ravenclaw here, a Slytherin there. The Sorting Hat happily does Erica‘s bidding as she dutifully calls off the name of every new student standing before her. “O’Cormac, Aisling!”

Hearing her name being called aloud startles Aisling O‘Cormac, and she glances around slightly nervously before heading to the provided stool. Picking up the hat, she sits, gingerly placing said hat upon her head.

Gasping from the noise the hat made, Aisling staggers upright and heads, beaming, towards her new house’s table.

Angelo Grey claps loudly as he takes a good look at Aisling. “Hi” he offers the first year.

Hufflepuff, always welcoming to each new student, their numbers swelling. Trailing a glove tip down the scroll, Erica‘s eyes scan name after name. A few Ravenclaws are sorted before she calls out, “O’Leary, Heat!”

Heat O‘Leary finally abandons his vain attempts to completely smooth his hair as he approaches the hat, two stray locks sweeping out from their places behind each of his ears. He had given his all, and for the most part it worked–his hair didn’t look too bad, at least it looked intentional now. The boy glances towards Kassandra and lets a grin pass over his lips–she gets to use it after he does, even if there are a few people in between. He carefully takes the hat and settles on the stool as he places it upon his head. Heat‘s eyes pass between all of the tables while he waits for the sorting announcement.

Kassandra Verkooyen leans over to Rawnie, nods to Heat and whispers “The boy with the spittle hair…”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton applauds quietly as another Slytherin is announced. “Sounds like Slytherin’s year, again….”

Heat O‘Leary steps down after removing the hat, his face sheet white. He shivers noticeably and wraps his arms about himself before making the trek towards the Slytherin table.

Patsy went to Gryffindor, Orville to Hufflepuff. A nice girl Mary found her way to Gryffindor and an even nicer girl named Sally found her way to Slytherin, following right on Heat’s heels. Erica‘s voice remains strong as she calls out the next name, “O’Shay, Sara!”

Sara O‘Shay quietly steps up to the stool as her name is called. Lifting the hat she sets it on her head, all the while sitting on the stool and crossing her legs all primp and properly. This done Sara casts her gaze out to the crowded, already sorted students, her gaze eventually settling upon her siblings.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver eyes Mary as she sits down next to him, but does not know what to say, since she turned her back to him to keep on watching the Sorting ceremony.

Sara O‘Shay offers a bit of a grin as the hat announces her house and stands from the stool and returns the hat to it. That done the young Slytherin girl makes her way towards her house table with little haste. As she sits down Sara offers a bit of a nod towards her siblings. There was, of course, no doubt that shed end up in Slytherin house.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles. “Slytherin’s all over the place, quite a delight, really,” she gives with a shake of her head.

“Imagine that,” the professor muses with a smirk, “an O’Shay in Slytherin. Someday you should surprise us, old hat.” Erica looks back to her list, about half way through from the way she holds the scroll in the middle of its length, “Jitsunari, Chris!”

Chris Jitsunari straightens as he hears his name. The hat obviously couldn’t be that bad, seeing as how none of the other students seemed to be in pain. He looks around and laughs nervously before walking up to the stool and taking a seat and placing the hat on his head.

Chris Jitsunari grins widely at hearing the result, Ravenclaw being his choice house from the moment he first read about Hogwarts. He gets down from the stool and walks to the Ravenclaw table proudly, smiling at the other Ravenclaws .

There is one of those uncomfortable silences as Erica walks up the two steps to her space at the table and takes from it a crystal goblet, filled with a ruby-orange liquor. She takes a sip and her voice seems to come to her with renewed strength as she announces the next student’s name, “Ripple, Rebecca!”

Rebecca Ripple gulps anxiously, and steps up to the hat, wondering how anyone could enchant a hat to think, speak, and even sing. She approaches the stool, sits herself down, and takes a deep breath as she feels the Sorting Hat being lowered onto her head. “What now?” she thinks. She is praying now, that the decision made for her today will be a prudent one.

Rebecca Ripple skips down to the bottom of the steps, giggling with delight. She gleefully sits at the Ravenclaw table…

Erica Calwern strikes quite the pose, liquor in one hand, scroll in the other. Another, longer sip is taken from the goblet as she looks over the list. First the mutter to herself, “How did that name get smudged? Hughe? Hank?” Then realizing that the Hat has shipped off Rebecca to the Ravenclaws, she announces, “Turner, Baldwin!”

Baldwin Turner lowers his head as his name is called, admittedly still quite frightened. Advancing slowly towards the hat, his pace slows as the worried boy gets closer and closer, perhaps without him even realising it. Stopping before Professor Calwern, Baldwin parts his curley hair to look at her directly, “Do I…” Gulp. He surveys the crowd. “Need to… do it… Here?” Biting his tongue, Baldwin seems to accept it is inevitable, sitting down and commenacing visible shakeage.

Baldwin Turner gulps, “I-I-is that a… Is that a good thing?” Hopping from the stool, he lowers his head to avoid eye contact and shuffles hastily towards the table, trying not to make a fool of himself any further.

Erica Calwern is holding the scroll by its very end now and feet upon feet dangle on the floor before her. The line of students near her has shorten considerably while the tables have filled to near bursting with new members, “Verkooyen, Kassandra!” With such precise pronounciation, it is clear she is not allowed to make mistakes when it comes to the children’s names.

A nervous smile rushes across Kassandra Verkooyen‘s face as she approaches the steps, which lead to the stool, with elegant steps. Climbing up the stairs she starts turning the ring on her right hand in excitement. She sits down gently and puts on the vintage hat.

An overwhelming smile gleams on Kassandra Verkooyen‘s face. She stands up gracefully and places the hat back onto the chair. Then she descends towards the Ravenclaw table with blushed cheeks, eased and contented about her destiny, and takes a seat among her housemates.

A quiet boy shuffles his way to Ravenclaw while two louder boys nearly race to Gryffindor upon the Hat’s announcement. Erica can’t help but chuckle at the exuberance before calling out the next name, “Weller, Rawnie!”

When Rawnie is called she runs up to the stool, takes the hat and places it in her head looking a bit comical with the brim covering most of her head. She is simply so excited that she is bounceing on her seat kicking her feet back and forth and twiddling her thumbs. A real “wiggle worm” this one.

Rawnie Weller stands and takes off the hat etting it back onto the stool muttering somthing that sounds a bit like “Starch” to the hat as she runs to take her seat at Gryffindor table.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton lets out a loud, very loud, cheer as Rawnie is dubbed to be in Gryffindor. “Whoo! Welcome to Gryffindor, Miss Weller!” is given by the somewhat overly enthusiastic Gryffindor prefect.

“Fantastic!” the Charms professor is heard to exclaim softly as hears the Hat’s announcement. Whether it is for Rawnie’s sorting or if her gaze alights upon the final student awaiting their moment of consideration with the Hat. With a certain amount of zeal, Erica calls out, “And finally, Stopps, Warrick!”

Warrick Stopps blinks as his name is called and belatedly stands up a little straighter. Posture, oh, yes, good posture. He clears his throat, and with only another moment of hesitation, he sets his shoulders and marches up the stairs and to the stool. There he takes a sudden seat and puts on the hat like all the others before him.

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller gives a loud enough cheer as she takes her seat at the table. “That hat can read your mind! Did you know it?” She asks Marie-Anna enthusiasticly as if she hadn’t only met her.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton grins at Rawnie and nods. “Impressive, isn’t it,” is given with a laugh. “I’m Marie-Anna Greyton, one of your new housemates, you’ll have to live with me for a couple of years, and this house until you graduate, congratulations.”

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller is still bounceing in her seat kicking her legs back and forth excitedly. “This is great! My name is Rawnie but I guess you know that because you heard her say my name, and myabe you said my name but I don’t remember if you said my name so I’ll just assume you don’t know my name is Rawnie Weller.” The little girl has to take a deep breath to recollect all the air she used up on that long statement. “When do we get to eat? Mimi told me all about the great food at Hogwarts that those elves fix. Do you think there the same elves Santa Clause uses? Oh! Do you think Santa is some kind of wizard?” Rawnie‘s mouth is unstopable.

(Gryffindor) Briony Wexler may have met her match. The first year seems to talk even more uncontrollably than the young Wexler girl does. Briony can’t help but gawk a bit, not realizing that she herself has had a history of talking much in the same fashion.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton laughs a little as she listens to Rawnie. “Take a breath, Miss Weller,” she gives, snickering. “We’ll eat after our new Headmistress makes her speech and the rules are announced, as well as the new Head Boy and Head Girl, I’m betting on Martin for Head Boy,” she grins.

Erica Calwern looks up from her list and spots Talia still upon the dias. She looks back down at her list, “Stoederman, Smith, Stopps, how could I have?” A long silence and the woman exclaims, “Ah! Caulfield, Talia!”

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver leans forward to see Rawnie’s face and as he meets her gaze he nearly shouts over to her. “Welcome, Rawnie. I’m Andy Carver, second year. The feast will begin soon, I hope. The Headmistress usually says a few words before it starts.”

Primed to the sound of her name, Talia Caulfield hastens forward on short, swift steps with eyes narrowed warily and breath nerve-quickened.

(Gryffindor) “A speech? Oie! Don’t you hate when people think they have to make themselves heard and then they just end up talking and talking and talking and talking and never shutting it?” Rawnie seems oblivious to the irony of her own statement. “I mean its one thing to jes say a few words and then sit back down but no, when they say itsa speech they go on and on and on.” Rawnie looks around the table to see a lot of students suddenly looking at her in awe. “Um… what?”

(Gryffindor) “It’s usually very informative. The headmistress will tell us all sorts of useful things to know for the year,” Briony adds rather quietly, cowed by the girl’s rate of speech. “Look, there’s only one left,” she comments about the unsorteds, starting to feel rather hungry herself. “I do hope we’ll get to eat soon. I’m famished.”

(Gryffindor) As Rawnie smarted herself out, Andy Carver laughs out and sits back, staring to the enchanted ceiling.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles a little. “Briony’s right, they’re usually quite informative, the Headmistress will tell you where you can and can’t go. Like the Forbidden Forest.”

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver moans. “Aw.” as Talia heads for the Slytherin table.

With a flick of her wrist, Erica has the scroll roll itself up and sends it back to her seat at the faculty table. The professor walks to the center of the dias and looks down upon the row after row of children, “So begins another year at our old home and for some of us new. At this time, it is my sincerest pleasure,” and her tone and expression do express that very sentiment, “to introduce all of you to our new Headmistress, Professor Prichard!”

Talia Caulfield raises her head in a sharp jerk, eyes rounding with a brief flash, and removes the hat with nimble fingers, rising and slipping it back on the stool with perfect precision before she moves at a sedate pace to join her new housemates at the Slytherin table.

“Thank you, Erica,” Melvina Prichard notes as she purposefully rises from the faculty table, lifting her cherry-wood wand to her neck and tapping the tip against it deftly. “Sonorus summissus,” she murmurs, giving a certain amount of power to her voice so that she may be heard of the student chattering; happy exchanges and exciting tales of places visited and daring-do over the long separation left by the summer holiday, she was certain. Not to mention the animated greetings of those newly appointed to thier houses.

“Pardon me, everyone,” Melvina