Rising from her place at the faculty table and clearing her throat loudly in a meaningful manner, Melvina lifts her hands motions for the room to quiet. The hall is lavishly decorated in blue and silver, as seems the tradition for the current house points holder. “Hello, dear students of Hogwarts term 1926 to 1927. Or, more aptly, I should say, goodbye. What a year it has been! Yes, indeed. But, before we travel much further done this ceremonial road designed to fill our bellies, hearts, and minds until our next fine year of learning, it is my great honor of announcing to you all we have with us a special guest, joining us for a good-will mission of sorts. If you will please direct your attention, and warmly welcome…” withdrawing her long wand from the sleeve of her emerald green robes, Melvina gives the length of cherry wood a dramatic flick. The huge double doors at the rear of the hall swings open slowly, their loud creak filling the room.

(Gryffindor) Though the gryffindor has been chattering almost incessantly to her friends, when Melvina begins to speak, Briony clams up quickly, staring up at the front of the room. Now is not the time to lose more points for Gryffindor, of course. It wouldn’t be the right way to end the year. “Who do you reckon is coming?” she asks those around her as the doors open and she cranes her head to see what’s going on at the back of the room.

(Gryffindor) Not one to be outdone by the likes of Briony, Rawnie was chatting it up quite feverently herslef and had to be nudged several times by her neighbor before she was stifled sufficiently. “Maybe it’sa troll.” Whispers Rawnie to Briony, it’s no secret she had been wanting to see one since the begining of the year.

As the doors swing open to allow a view into the entrance hall, it is Sylvie Winters-Geroff, Minister for Magic, who is revealed standing behind them. Her eyes flit over the tables of students quickly, head not turning, before she takes her first steps into the room. From there it is a straight walk up the middle aisle, somewhat formal dark robes swishing slightly as they hang around her, until she has joined Melvina at the front of the hall. When she reaches it she gives a brief nod of greating to Melvina. “Thank you, Headmistress.”

(Gryffindor) Leaning back, away from the fainting chatter, Andy Carver pays attention to what the Headmistress has to tell them. Brisky turning around to the opening entrance door he almost falls over and saves himself by taking a hold of the table. “Hm, who’s that?” he asks, feeling sort of uninformed.

(Gryffindor) “It’s the Minister for Magic,” Briony hisses to Andy with a wide-eyed expression. “I got to meet her at the Ball! Oh, she’s so important!” Briony seems not to know what other adjective to apply to the woman as she stares with interest, almost rising in her seat to see better over the tall person nearby.

Melvina Prichard returns the nod with one of her own, her lips painted with a quiet, half-amused grin that is pertepually a part of her character. Perhaps more so now than on average. She did so enjoy the dramatics. “Naturally, Minister,” she replies, before finishing her introduction to the crowd. “Sylvie Winters-Geroff, Minister for Magic.” She offers some time for the stunned silence and whatever applauses might creep up out of the shock, before pushing on. “The Minister’s time is short, and she has a very special purpose for visiting us today, so I will turn the floor, and my pedistal, over to her. Minister?” Stepping away from the podium from which Melvina usually stands behind, she motions for Sylvie to take it, before returning to her seat.

(Gryffindor) A sigh of dissapointment from Rawnie, “I wish it was a troll. Witha big club’n everthin.” She mutters pokeing at her empty plate before turning attention to the Head Mistress again curiously…. but still pouty.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler actually drops her pumpkin juice as the Minister for Magic enters, and lets out a fairly loud squee as it stains her skirt, immediately grabbing up as many napkins — her own, and her neighbors, to try to contain the mess as best she can while turning a fairly brilliant shade of red.

(Gryffindor) “A troll? Well, that would be exciting, I admit,” the girl tells her housemate with a bit of a giggle until she notice that her napkin has been stolen up. “Hey, that’s mine, FeLICity,” Briony tells her cousin with a scowl. “You shouldn’t take things without asking. It’s just a bit of pumpkin juice.”

“Thank you, again.” As Melvina takes her seat, Sylvie turns to fully face the students, pausing a moment as she looks over them again before she starts speaking. It’s been a few years since she’s been in this exact position, after all, though many of the older students are still familiar. “I am here today to honor two of your peers, two of the wizarding world’s finest citizens, for their great efforts put forth this past year on behalf of one of your professors.” A very quick glance is directed back at Karina. “Miss Eliza Marlowe, Mister Martin Foster, would you please join me?”

(Gryffindor) “Just a bit of pumpkin juice?” Felicity says, her voice becoming a bit shrill, even as she tries to whisper. Sylvie’s words, however, give her pause, as she looks up front while maddly dabbing at her skirt as if it would help the orange liquid from settling in.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver really feels dumb now, but does not try to find and excuse. “Oh, politicians…” he rolls his eyes and sends a commiserating smile to Felicity as she tries to recover her skirt. As a quarrel seems to be about to begin between the cousins she hisses back, adressing both of them with a blink. “Psst, the Minister.”

(Gryffindor) “She’s the one making noise, don’t psst at me,” Briony retorts irritably and scoffs at Felicity. “You should just learn a charm for that,” the girl tells her cousin and turns her face to Sylvie as the Minister begins to talk. “Oooooh, I wonder what they’re being honored for! I want to be honored!”

With a startled gasp, Eliza Marlowe springs to her feet, unfolding gracefully to her full height despite the fact that her mouth is still hanging open in surprise. It stays open as she exchanges a glance across the room with Martin over the heads of the other students – then looks back to the Minister, and then to Karina, and then to the Minister again. Slowly at first, and then faster as the initial shock wears away, Eliza strides down the aisle towards the head table, a slow, incredulous smile beginning to spread across her face.

(Gryffindor) “Quiet ya ninnys!” Whispers Rawnie to her table suddenly and uncharacteristicly as Martin and Eliza are called. “I bet there gunner get a reward er somthin.” She says with a bright smile tossing Felicity one of her own napkins.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver smiles and applauds as the headgirl’s and headboy’s names are announced. “Maybe we’ll be seeing you walking up there in a few years.” Andy grins to Briony. “I wonder what she’ll tell them…or give them…” he considers.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler makes a vague clucking noise with her tongue at the notion of Briony being honored, though she sagely keeps any further commentary to herself, actually to curious about what it is that the Minister for Magic has come all this way to do.

Sylvie Winters-Geroff offers a brief smile to the Head Boy and Girl as they walk forward, waiting until both have reached the front of the room before she speaks again. “Mister Foster and Miss Marlowe played a crucial role in researching and apprehending Immanual Irving, a man who was working illegally to create and test dangerous potions.” She leave the explanation at that; the news of the trial likely spread even to here. “In doing so, they also cleared the name of Professor Sedgewick, for which I know we are all very grateful.” “For their skill, determination, and bravery in assisting the Ministry in this way, each will be awarded the Order of Merlin First Class.”

(Gryffindor) “I will be honored someday,” Briony comments quietly, then clapping cheerfully as the Minister announces the Head Boy and Girl’s work in apprehending a criminal. Her applause is loud, though she does not deign to whistle as she might otherwise. After all, Briony has some sense of decorum when she needs to.

(Gryffindor) “Woo! Way ter go!” Yelps Rawnie as she cheers with the rest of the school as the two students are awarded, in the middle of her excitement she pauses and leans over the table asking “Wot’s this order-o-Merlin thing?” Yes utterly clueless as usual but being raised Muggle gives her ignorance an exscuse at least.

“What?” Eliza‘s exclamation carries to every corner of the Great Hall, and her mouth hangs open again for a moment after it is done. She looks swiftly over at Martin, as if to check whether he’s heard the same thing that she has. “Order of – First class?” Eliza repeats, her powerful voice barely a whisper now. And then she looks back at Sylvie, gulps, and straightens up, unfurling her shoulders to stand at attention before the Minister. Another smile starts to edge up the corners of Eliza‘s mouth, smaller, wondering, and proud.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver‘s jaw drops. “An Order of Merlin First Class?” A warm feeling of joy emerges from deep inside of him and he applauds loudly. Amazed he settles again. “Unbelievable, it must be like a dream comes true for them.” he says, still beaming.

(Gryffindor) “First class!” the girl gasps loudly. “It’s the top award they can get!” Briony tells Rawnie and stands up a bit, clapping loudly again. “Oh, my… can you imagine? We should be so lucky.”

Slight smile back as she watches Eliza and Martin’s reactions, Sylvie waits until the large amounts of cheering have died down again before continuing. When it finally does, she turns to face the Head Boy and Girl, taking a single step toward them to present each with the award and offer a handshake. Alongside this she adds, “Thank you, both, for your services. I’m glad to know there are people such as you, and am sure you will both do well once you leave these walls.” She offers another, larger smile to the two, before turning back to the student body at large. “It has been a pleasure to be here with you today. With no further ado, I turn you back to your Headmistress.”

With a steady hand, Eliza reaches out to accept the award, shaking the Minister’s hand firmly with the other. She stands even taller, if that were possible, and her smile shines forth into a full-force grin as she closes her hand around her Order of Merlin. But Eliza‘s eyes are shining with more than pride – as she withdraws from the handshake, she hastily reaches up to scrub at her eyes with the heel of her hand, swallowing hard even amid her smiles.

Rising from the Faculty table after Eliza and Martin have accepted the rewards, Melvina applauds loudly, after after a few moments, motions for everyone to rise and applaud as well. And with some satisfaction, she notes that the applause is both loud and very sincere. “Thank you, Minister, and congratulations to the Head Boy and Head Girl! Let us praise our fine student leaders by honoring the with the school song!” Giving a great, wordless, hooting cheer, the Headmistress breaks in to a very loud, very happy round of largely off-key song, in hopes that the room follows her lead in good cheer. “Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something, please! Whether we be old and bald, or young with scabby knees! Our heads could do with filling, with some interesting stuff! For now they’re bare and full of air, dead flies and bits of fluff! So teach us things worth knowing, bring back what we’ve forgot! Just do your best, we’ll do the rest, and learn until our brains all rot!” And only once the Headmistress-invited standing ovation and song has progressed for several minutes, the Headmistress makes motion for everyone to quiet again. Turning to Sylvie, Martin, and Eliza, Melvina grins, warmly. Obviously quite jovile, even if there is a small mark of seriousness in her eyes. “Miss Marlowe, Mister Foster, please remain there for a moment. Thank you, Minister. I know you have pressing a pressing agenda, but if you could see fit to stay, I’m sure my staff would make room for you at our table. The meals are as lovely still as I’m sure you remember.” The offer made, she looks back to the crowd of students, her rich brown eyes twinkling, “Now, moving right along..”

“Indeed, indeed. Well done, Miss Marlowe, Mister Foster. You have both performed an act and bravery and cunning that speaks well of yourselves and this school. It is with a genuine heart that I, the faculty of Hogwarts School, and your fellow students congratulate you. However,” Melvina notes, the mirth leaving her expression at the note of that last word. The Headmistress’ tone becoming gravely serious. “As prefects, and certainly Head Boy and Head Girl, you of all pairs should know that rules are rules, and are not to be broken lightly, even in the wake of such good tidings or favorable results. Thus, I fear I must make some last moment addendums to our house rankings.”

Stepping back to allow the Headmistress the spotlight along with the two students, Sylvie joins in with the last round of clapping as the room stands up. As the clapping.. and, later, song.. fade off and Melvina resumes her speech, Sylvie apparently accepts the invitation to stay. After all, who would refuse the Hogwarts feast? And the beginning of Melvina’s speech finds her at the Faculty table.

Basking in the glow of applause and praise, Eliza stands at the front of the room, pushing back the tears of joy and pride that threaten to spill out of her shining eyes. She tosses her head back, and lifts her chin higher in a show of strength, struggling to keep her smile from wavering. And then the Headmistress’s next announcement comes – and Eliza‘s expressive face melts into a look of sudden apprehension. She exchanges an entirely different kind of look with Martin now, worried and uncertain.

“For leaving the school grounds without express permission or escort of myself or one of the school faculity, I find that I must penalize both the Head Boy and Head Girl by twenty points each.” Knowing what an unpopular announcement that will be, especially after such a jolly congratulations, Melvina similar waits and allows that to sink in. Noting those who boo with the same quiet, grave expression.

(Gryffindor) Joining in cheerfully, Briony sings the school song loudly, and perhaps a bit out of tune, sacrificing her tone for her volume. “Oh!” she comments as both Hufflepuff and Slytherin lose twenty points each. “Maybe we’ll catch up!” she comments, though this is rather wishful thinking, even given the wake of point losses.

(Gryffindor) Andy‘s eyes suddenly widen. “Hey, they just got the Order of Merlin, why do they still have to be penalized?” Andy shakes his head. “Hm, maybe you are right, Briony. But don’t you think they will be awarded even more points for what they really intended to do? They just broke the rules for other good purposes, you know…” Andy is quite uncertain.

(Gryffindor) “Maybe!” Yelps Rawnie excitedly. “I wouldn’ta traded points fer some order thingy.” She says sniggering softly. Truth be known Rawnie only recently came to understand the points system. “But that erm… Ravenclaw house should lose some too… erm for reasons I don’t care ter discuss…” Meaning ‘I just want us to win.’

Eliza lifts her chin higher still – not in defiance, but in acceptance. She stands just as straight and tall as ever, even with the burden of losing her House points as one of her last acts as a Hufflepuff – but Eliza still can’t quite bring herself to meet the eyes of her housemates, or Martin.

Once Melvina has let that reality sink in, that Ravenclaw’s lead had become absolute, the Headmistress continues. Her expression equally as serious and tone just as grave. “However, I would be remiss in following Hogwarts policy if I didn’t then, in turn, reward your fine accomplishments as well.” It’s only then than the tell-tale twinkle in her eyes glimmers as she shifts her gaze toward Martin and Eliza. “With dedication and cunning that exemplifies the core traits of both your houses, Miss Marlowe and Mister Foster, you two alone subdued and helped bring to justice a singularly Dark Wizard, and cleared our dear Professor Sedgewick’s name. For that, I have the great pleasure of awarding you fifty points, each.”

Continuing on, as if not to lose her momentum, Melvina adds in a grand voice, “Further, I award Martin Foster another fifty points efforts that saved the lives of third year Louis Harper and our Professor Rathe while putting himself under great personal risk.” Drawing a deep breath, Melvina grins, quite suddenly, and opens another round of applause, before looking down to Martin and Eliza, nodding that after they have soaked up enough praise, they may return to their tables.

And Eliza‘s grin bursts forth again, spilling over into a laugh of relief and triumph. She reaches over to shake Martin’s hand, and then changes it to an enthusiastic thump on his shoulder. With the momentary anxiety entirely dispelled, Eliza is free to let her joy emerge again, and she strides – no, runs back to the Hufflepuff table to rejoin her housemates for one last time.

“Our Hogwarts family has endured much this term, and by sheer pluck of our students and faculty, we have emerged from the struggle stronger and shining brighter than we ever have. It is on that note, that I also wish to praise Professor Sedgewick and Professor Rathe,” Melvina continues, after the applauses have died down again. “Professor Sedgewick, of course, endured a grueling assault on her character and soul and perserved as best as one could expect. Professor Rathe showed great strength of character and soul in during the trial of Paul Clairwill, and such fortitude and bravery should be rewarded. Thought it would be unfair for me to award house points, or implore upon our dear visiting Minister to grant medals as were just recieved by our esteemed Head Boy and Head Girl, I believe they are each equally deserving of said regards, and we should all be proud of them, and of there connections to us and this school.” Again, leading a round of applause, Melvina then turns to Astra with a grin brimming with genuine pride, and motions to the blue and bronze decorations lining the room. “I believe we have a new House Champion, do we not? If you would do the honors?”

Standing up, there is a pause as the small woman reaches into her cloak to retrieve her wand. Looking rather perplexed as her name was mentioned, Astra tries to cover up her discomfort with a tight smile and a muttered, ‘my pleasure.’ Following that there she moves swiftly with a snapping motion of her wrist and wand, the banners flip from Blue and Bronze to Green and Silver changing to display from Ravenclaw to Slytherin colors. Astra‘s smile faded during the loss of points, but now she bestows a very pleased expression upon the Slytherin table as she tucks the wand away and retakes her seat without a word.

“Congratulatuions, Slytherin house! Now, only one more thing to say, before we enjoy –” With her still withdrawn wand, Melvina negligantly flicks it at the direction of the tables, summoning the End of Year Feast for everyone to enjoy. “– the fine food which has been prepared for us. This has been my first year at Hogwarts School, but it has been a fine one. Thank you all for that. When I arived, this was an imposing castle, something I remembered from my youth. A daunting job. But thanks to you all, staff and students alike, I felt welcomed, and now, I can’t help but see this place as my home. For those of you students who will return next year, remember that magic use over the summer is strictly prohibitted, and that next year I hope we can grow together as much as we have this one. For those of you graduating and going out in to the world, we have only had the oppertunity to touch each other’s lives briefly, but I hope you will remember me and this place fondly, as I will remember you. My first graduating class as the luckiest woman in the world, Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Eat well.” And with that, Melvina sits, smiling quietly.

(Gryffindor) “Ooooh, tasty food!” Briony squeals, feeling relatively apathetic about the house cup now. After all, from the start of the term, Gryffindor had been at a disadvantage. “What’re you doin’ ‘fer summer?” she asks those around her, her mouth full of chicken. “My da’ says ‘eeees go’ a project ‘fer us.” Really, Briony. Girls this age should know better than to talk with their mouths full.

(Gryffindor) Has no qualms about talking with a mouth full of food, and she is eating just as ravenously as ever as she answers. “Im gunner try an spend ano’r summer with me mum I think, She said she’s gots me a surprise an Im je diein ter know wot.” Rawnie washes her food down quickly with some pumkin juice. “I’m gunner ask if we kin stay at that Hogsmeade place!”

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler only adds a very small amount of food to her plate, and compared to Briony whom she sits next to, her usually slow method of eating appears positively dainty. Still somewhat cross about the pumpkin juice on her skirt, the third-year asks with a somewhat lofted brow, “I imagine I’ll spend the summer with my Grandmother Larsen — she wants to go up to the lake. What sort of project?”

(Gryffindor) “I ‘unno,” Briony answers, surprisingly congenially considering to whom she is speaking. “Dad hasn’t told me yet, he just said we’ve got a project after we get home for summer. He said mum gets to help, too, so maybe it’s something fun and not repapering the house or something.” Briony shudders at the thought of this. “If you come to Hogsmeade, you should owl me! We can go on adventures and such! It’ll be fun! Gabe is probably coming to visit, too. It’s going to be a very exciting summer.” She pauses. “I’m going to be thirteen this July!” Briony looks quite proud at this.

(Gryffindor) “Oh! Blimey, thirteen! I only jes turned twelve a few days ago.” Rawnie says a bit surprised. She seems a little dissapointed being the youngest of the three girls but it still doesn’t curb her appetite. “I’ll do that! I don’t gots many people ter send Figaro too with let’as so ‘ell be happy.”

(Gryffindor) After Andy has shuffled a good amount of food onto his plate he follows the conversation, mainly just listening while eating. “Hm, I’ve got no idea what I’m going to be doing the whole summer with my parents. So you…uhm…won’t be in Hogsmeade or so over the summer, Felicity?” Andy asks with a small voice, quickly looking down to his plate again, trying to let it sound as occasionally as possible.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler seems to consider that, after placing a small forkful of meat pie on her mouth. It’s quite a curious thing, despite being somewhat upset about her skirt, her tone to Briony is more or less cordial as well. There were, it would seem, times that they occasionally put aside (or simply forgot) the fact that they couldn’t stand each other, and got along rather well. “July fourteenth, right?” Felicity murmurs, recalling the date from her calander. “I don’t know that we’re planning to stop in Hogsmeade, though I imagine that Gran probally will have a few more visits with Aunty Sybil, at least until Aunty Sibyl becomes — well, to busy.” Her eyes twinkle, almost a little mischeviously at that, as she glances to Briony. The idea of Briony’s coming little sister excites her, especially since she has no little sisters — just a little brother, who cried all the time. “She doesn’t like me to be around when she sees Auntie Sybil, but I tell her I’m going to play with you, I’m sure she’ll bring me along.” She pauses a little, as Andy speaks, turning her gaze to him as she puts down her fork, and picks up her pumpkin juice — being very careful with it this time. “Some, I’m sure. Will you be?”

(Gryffindor) “Oh, mum should have the baby before my birthday, she said. She told me she’s amazed she lasted this long.” Briony pauses as she thinks of another sibling, though, looking forward some, and then also cringing a bit. Another one to stretch their school supplies and clothes between. Of course, it doesn’t occur to Briony that the little one might not even need to share with them. “Oh, yes, it’s in July,” the girl finally answers, nodding before she puts more food into her mouth. “Iffs gunna be great, too. Gabe iff gunna be there, too. His birfday’s the same.” Briony pauses as she continues to chew. “Are you going to be there for your birthday, too?”

(Gryffindor) Andy quickly gulps down half a potato and almost has to cough it out again, because it still is too hot for being swallowed. Having managed this while blushing to a deep red he replies to Felicity. “Yes, I surely will be there. I’ve nothing planned, you know. So just send me an owl when you know the date and so on.” Eased that there could be a way to meet his friend outside of the school’s boundaries, Andy takes another fork of carrots.

(Gryffindor) “That all depends, I guess,” Felicity murmurs, her voice becoming quiet, and her eyes somewhat subdued at Briony’s question. A thought creeping up on her that she’d rather not consider, a harsh reality. “On Grandmother Larsen.” Those last few words fall from her with a weight that she can’t quite bear, which immediately summons her voice again, with a somewhat forced smile to try to lighten them. “She loves the lake, after all. She might want to stay all summer.” Looking grateful for a switch in direction from her hard thoughts, Felicity smiles warmly to Andy. Her too-cute, shimmery smile. Subtle, cute, and real, unlike her fake-face-everyone-is-looking smiles. “I will. I look forward to it.”

(Gryffindor) Looking from Andy to Felicity and back again, Briony seems to miss entirely the connection between them and the significance of their words. Why the drama about visiting? Shrugging, the girl continues working on cleaning her plate, and it is not long before her plate is, in fact, cleaned. “Should be a great summer,” Briony responds, grinning at Felicity, apparently unaware of the significance, too, of the comment about her grandmother.

(Gryffindor) “Mhn, great,” Felicity murmurs, quietly, in response to Briony’s assessment of the summertime’s potential. Her tone half-genuine, and half-filled with a quiet dread. She’d not expected Briony to cotton on to her verbal slip, and honestly, she was glad. It hurt to much to think about. “Well, I still have some packing to do. I’ve let it go late. And I need to change my skirt. I’ll let you know when I’m going to be in Hogsmeade. See you on the train tomarrow. Excuse me.” And before Andy can make note of it, afraid that he might be more perceptive, she pushes herself up and makes her way from the hall.

(Gryffindor) After a long while, Briony, too, finishes her meal and grins at those around her. “Have a good vacation!” she tells them all. “I’m going to go make sure all my things are together so we can leave sooner!” She giggles as she says this and finishes off her pumpkin juice before standing up from the table quickly and making her way out to her commonroom.

It is almost sunset, the brightly streaked colours of the dying sun playing on the surface of the lake. The air is cool, though not too cold, and the area is quiet and near empty, for the moment. Apparently unbothered by the cool air and the quietness and solitude in the area alike, Kelly Pantall sits on one of the boulders, trailing her fingers through the pebbles. Her gaze is fixed somewhere on the lake, and she chews on her lower lip thoughtfully, a rather pensive expression etched onto her features.

With her Owl, Figaro perched on her narrow shoulder Rawnie is making her way toward the lake. “It’s sucha loverly day innit Fig…” She stops mid-sentance and looks up at Kelly on the boulder. “I don’t think ya should jump in, tha squid only act’s friendly I says. ‘el bite yer clean in ‘alf!” She spouts up at the older girl jokingly peering at the expression on her face.

Bounding out to the lake shore, Briony appears to be giggling hard and red-faced. “See, I told you I’d win!” she calls back and then turns around to see that nobody’s following her. “Oh.” This is stated blandly and she frowns a bit before turning around to see her housemates. “Hi, Kelly! Hi, Rawnie!” she greets them both individually and grins broadly, glancing only once more over her shoulder to make sure that those she was trying to out-run indeed have not followed. “School’s almost out!” she announces loudly, sounding quite excited, and ignoring the fact that the other students are bound to already know that.

The lake has attracted more than just Gryffindor students this evening. In the distance, yet steadily approaching, Evan is walking alongside Olivia, the two taking a night as summer nears to get out and spend some time together. Evan carefully steps across the grounds, for all that his attention is much more focused on the lady with him than the ground beneath his feet – presumably someone will stop him before he walks into the lake. “I still think we ought to learn human transfiguration earlier,” he murmurs, a presumably a followup to some conversation. “I don’t see what use the animals are, and it’s enough work controlling them without worrying about taking a test at the same time…”

“I always get the irritable ones who don’t want to be transfigured at all. I’m certain they do their best not to cooperate,” Olivia answers in affirmative with a sigh. “I’m sure I failed it because of that,” she tells him, shaking her head ruefully. Olivia finds herself stopping as she gets closer to the lake, kicking a small rock with her shoe and frowning rather hard as she spots Kelly. Oh, perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all. “Let’s stay over here,” she tells Evan quietly, trying to step in front of him and direct him in the opposite direction of where Kelly is.

Rounding out the house set, Saphia trundles along as well, burried under a fishing rod, a tackle box, bait bag, fishing line, and three manuals of best fishing practice, as she staggers down toward the shore. She doesn’t seem to notice anyone until she finally reaches the shore and unceremoniously dumps most of the gear to the ground, apparently finding it too heavy to put down any more gracefully. “Oh!” She comments, and smiles nervously to all the other students before flipping open one of the books and reciting to herself, “Setting up your fishing pole, step one…”

Glance fleetingly flickering up towards each person as they enter in turn, Kelly looks slightly put out that her privacy and segregation from the rest of the school has been spoilt by the entrance of so many others at once. Her gaze quickly returns to the lake, though, and she folds her arms across her chest in slight annoyance. “I wasn’t intending to jump in.” She offers in response, though her tone is quieter than perhaps is normal for her. “And I am thoroughly aware of the fact that it’s nearly the end of term, Briony Wexler, and the last thing I need is to be reminded.”

A smile spreads over Rawnie‘s face as she turns to Briony “I know! It’s ‘citin ainit?” She nearly yells with her… apparent excitement. She looks back up to Kelly after a momment and rolls her eyes. “Well I were only jokein, but now I don’t mind if yer jump in at all.” All this was said in a rather haughty tone. Rawnie smiles as the other students arive, especially Saphia. “Yer got any worms there Saphia? Can’t go-a fishin ‘ithout yer worms.” To which her owl Figaro gives a positive HOOT.

Smiling broadly to Rawnie, Saphia reaches into her bait bag and, with some distaste, pulls out a wriggling worm, before putting it back into the bag. “Absolutely, Rawnie. Good to see you again, too.” She continues to look over her manual, setting up her rod and putting line over it, and then concentrates hard on tying her hook to the line properly.

“Maybe there’s a spell to make animals want to be transfigured. Though the only person who’d think to come up with one must’ve sat through these same classes once.” Somehow, though, Evan doesn’t sound entirely serious about this idea as he answers. This is followed by a very quick and emphatic shake of his head. “The Professor must know how difficult they can be. After all, he can’t even control it by giving the same creature to every person, there must be some sort of compensation. I’m sure you did fine.” Her halt brings him up short as well, stopping beside her with a curious glance, which is turned from her to the edge of the lake. There’s a lot of people, but noting this fact doesn’t seem to ease his curiosity much, given how definite Olivia was about staying. “Is something wrong?” he ask back, also quietly, walking neither forward nor turning to move away yet.

“What are you doing over summer?” Briony asks the two Gryffindors, ignoring, for the time being, Kelly’s snarky comment. “I’m hoping my parents will let me stay with my Aunt Eva in London. Though, we just moved to Hogsmeade, so I imagine I’ll have to stay there.” She pauses. “Plus, Dad’s got some kind of… project… I guess. He said we’re going to work on it all summer to get it started.” The girl shakes her head in confusion and sits down on the ground, leaning back and propping her arms behind her head. “I’m glad to not have to do homework every day, now!”

Though she sighs heavily and rather unnecessarily loudly, Kelly remains silent for a moment, ignoring those others in the vicinity for a moment. Then, she looks up again, fixing a particularly dark expression for a moment on Briony. “Nothing. I’m doing nothing over the summer. I’m staying at home with my insane mother and my two sisters and my brother, and doing absolutely nothing.” The way she lists off her family members is spiteful at best, and she returns her attention to the lake darkly. “And I was enjoying the privacy of my sitting here until all of you came along.” She adds, at a low grumble.

“I dunno wot I’m gunner do….” Says Rawnie to Briony while chewing on her nails. “I guess I’m just gunner stay at home with my ol man. Maybe I can get Mimi ter take me ta ‘ogsmeade though.” She thinks out loud. “I ain’t ne’r been there…”

Saphia Bona looks to Kelly and frowns, and whispers to her, “I… I’ll take my fishing around the shore a little. I’m so sorry.” She begins packing her fishing gear up again.

“She, er… well,” Olivia frowns and leans against the tree nearby, examining her fingernails rather closely. “We met in the library a while ago, and she started yelling at me, and then called me stupid.” She begins picking at her fingernails, though the excitement of the other girls present does make some effect on her and she looks up at Evan, offering a small smile. “I’m glad it’s summertime, almost. My parents said it would be fine for me to visit in July.” She blushes and smiles more as she tells him this.

“S’a public place,” Briony answers to Kelly, frowning at the the girl and then sitting up. “If you come to Hogsmeade, you should come visit me. We can go on adventures and things. Gabe is probably going to visit some, and hopefully we’ll be able to look at some of the mysteries we found before we came to school.” She pauses. “That’s where I met him, you know. His mum used to watch kids for my Auntie Eva when she worked at Hogsmeade. Isn’t that neat?” The girl giggles and then looks at Saphia. “Oh, are you fishing? I’ve never done that. I hear it’s relaxing or something. It just sounds boring to me.”

Tuning again to look up at Kelly, Rawnie makes a bit of a sour face. “Aww shut-up Smelly, yer don’t own that lake an’ anyone kin come out here iffen they wan’ter.” She states in a very as a matter of factly type tone. “Jes cause ya can’t spend yer summer with Rafiepooh dern’t mean ya kin take it out on us.” Rawnie shakes he head and turns to look at Brony. “She ain’t gots no kinder manners a’tall”

His friend’s answer doesn’t seem to clarify things completely for Evan, who glances over at the group again, all of whom seem to be female. “Which she?” He frowns momentarily, glancing over to eye the group again, though a quick smile returns as she speaks of summer. “Did they? I’m so glad! Everyone will look forward to seeing you.. of course I will..” “You’ll meet the new baby! And if you’re able to stay long enough, we might even be able to take a day trip somewhere outside of Hogsmeade.”

Looking up at the other two Gryffindor girls, Kelly seems utterly stunned for a moment. Whether this is from Briony’s invitation to visit or Rawnie’s rather bizarre mockery is entirely uncertain. Finally, she offers the quiet query, “What, really?”, directed to Briony. As annoyed as she is (or was – her anger seems to fade a little, here), she calms down considerably, eying Briony, perhaps trying to see if this is some sort of jest. “You really want me to come and visit you, again?” Eventually, though, and with a very thoughtful expression, she seems called upon to answer Rawnie, and she offers, quietly and politely, but with an edge of contempt, “Rawnie Weller, I am only going to say this once. Leave me alone and never, ever speak of Rafe DeWitt again.”

“An’ what if I don’t eh?” Rawnie says narrowing her eyes at the older girl. “Ya don’t scare me Pantall, It inn’t my fault yer always lookin fer things ter be sour about is it?” Rawnie stands a bit firm despite Kelly’s penchant for hitting people. “I can out ‘ere ta look out at tha lake with me bird is all an I gotta rite ter it jes like everyone else.”

Her question unanswered, although she guesses she did speak it rather quietly, Saphia ignores Briony and Rawnie for a moment and then, biting her lip, she puts down her rod and walks over to Kelly. Clearly frightened of the strange third year, she puts her hands down on the rock Kelly is sitting on, and then whispers, “M… Ms. Pantall? You scare me, but I don’t think you’re a bad person.” She breathes out, the hardest bit done, and then finishes, “I’m sorry I disturbed you. I’ll go set up somewhere else.”

“Sure, why not,” Briony responds and nods. Though the girl had been talking to the other Gryffindor, she doesn’t seem anything adverse in inviting them both. Well, except the fact that they seem to hate each other. “We could work on the Good Deed Club some, and get it ready to start for next year. We don’t want the same thing to happen next year after all.” Pausing as she looks at Saphia, Briony quirks her head. “What’d we say?” she asks. “You can fish as well there as anywhere else, I wager.”

If Kelly figured that Briony was actually talking to the other girl, it doesn’t show, and she offers a small half-smile in response, before turning to Saphia, eying her appraisingly. “Er. Okay? Thank you?” Though her words say thank you, her tone says ‘I don’t really care’, and only now does she turn to Rawnie. After a moment of silence, glaring at the girl with barely concealed annoyance and contempt, she offers, “You’re the most obnoxious girl I have ever encountered. I won’t do anything to you, but I hope you die over the summer.” As much as she would probably like to, she doesn’t dare to swing at Rawnie again, not in front of so many other people, one of whom has just called her ‘not a bad person’. She turns her attention back to Saphia for a moment, adding, “I don’t mind if you go fishing here. I’m leaving.” And with that, she stands up and begins to stomp away.

“Oh, a day trip? Where would we go?” Olivia asks, looking quite excited as she asks this. “Oh – oh, they live in Hogsmeade, too, it sounds like,” she comments, looking around Evan at the other students. “Does your mum have plans to go away for a daytrip already?” She asks and bites her lip. “I mean, I don’t want her going out of her way just because I’m coming to visit.” She pauses. “Oh, and what do you want for your birthday?” She grins widely as she says this and stands up from where she has been leaning to stand next to Evan again.

Saphia Bona looks sad as Kelly walks away, raising her hand for a second to try and stop her, but her nerve failing her. Sighing, she walks back to her fishing pole and winces at the worm, and finally just asks Rawnie, “Ca… can you put the worm on the hook for me?”

Turning a bit white at Kelly’s declairation Rawnie stares at her shocked for a long momment before she starts to shake a bit. “Well….” She starts but can’t find the words she is looking for. Taking a teep breath Rawnie‘s face slowly goes from pale white to deep and angry red. “Well… well w…..” She begins shaking so much that her Owl decides it better fly from her shoulder and land on the branch of a nearyby tree. “Well I hope yer sweet’eart finds ano’r girlfriend ter snog with!” She finally shouts at the top of her lungs before turning quickly and storming off toward the castle.

Evan Geroff glances again at the other students, question reguarding them in particular unanswered, but shrugs it off to instead try and decide whether he’s seen any of them around Hogsmeade during summers. Kelly does win a someone odd look, but that is all, before he turns back to Olivia. “There are usually enough students around. If you like, I’m sure we can find out who, and all get together some day. I don’t know all of them though.” “I don’t know where we would go – some nearby city, or.. anywhere you like, really. Mother doesn’t have any trips planned that I know of, but she wouldn’t mind. We frequently go..” places. Except that he pauses, to blink at Rawnie this time, and say a bit louder toward the general assembly, “I hope you all didn’t come for a peaceful sunset, did you?”

“I just came here to fish,” Saphia says, sounding disappointed as she appears to have driven off two people here now. Well, maybe it wasn’t her fault, mostly. Biting her lower lip, she grabs the worm and forces it onto the hook, wincing as she does so but successfully managing to bait her fishing pole. She then skewers the worm a second time (one of the books said always to skewer both ends) and leans back, before managing a truly dreadful cast that tangles her line and goes nowhere.

Staring gape-mouth as Kelly stalks off, Briony looks to Rawnie, and then to Saphia. “Huh,” is all she can say and she continues to stare as Kelly disappears into the distance. “Ew, are you going to put the hook through the worm?” she asks and then watches Saphia does so. “EW!” She stands up quickly. “Oh, no, does the worm get hurt from that?” she asks and stares, backing up a bit. “So brutal…” Briony shakes her head and acts as if she hadn’t squashed bugs as a child.

“I don’t know any of them either,” Olivia admits, looking at the two who are now left. “I wonder why all the shouting.” She bites her lip and gives a small wave to Saphia, directly diverting her eyes as she sees the younger girl skewer the worm. “I suppose if your mum wants to go on a trip while I’m there it’ll be alright. I just don’t want people to go out of their way, you know. Of course you know.” Olivia stifles a giggle, smiling as she says this. “You’ve brought books out on fishing?” she asks, stepping closer. “I didn’t even know people wrote books about that!”

Olivia can’t help but giggle a bit now, looking back to Evan. “They write books about fishin, see?”

“Oh yes!” Saphia grins as she hears Olivia’s comments, “They write books on everything. That’s why I love them so much.” Her wonderful smile fades a little as she untangles her line, and then casts again, this time getting off an awkward but passable toss that lands her hook a little ways out into the lake. “Now, let me see… hold your rod firmly and wait to feel a tug that indicates the hook has been bitten. Tug on the rod occassionally to simulate movement…” She tugs on her rod obediently.

“I know,” Evan answers. “But we enjoy it. Really.” He chuckles a little with the remark; it’s a discussion he’s used to. Looking obediently toward Saphia and the fishing books, Evan glances back at Olivia, then apparently figures this isn’t the girl who was upsetting her and steps closer to get a look at the equipment. “What will you do if you catch one?”

Shuddering a bit as Saphia continues on with her fishing, Briony crosses her arms and looks in the direction that she had come in, the direction from which her friends were supposed to follow. “Well, I’m going to go see where my friends got to,” she announces to everyone. “Have fun, er, fishing,” she tells Saphia and then turns with a wave. “See you all at the feast tomorrow!” The girl sprints away quickly, though not quite so quickly as she seems to think she ought to be able, given the pudge that still lingers on her being.

“Oh, right, of course,” Olivia answers with a nod, lingering closer to Saphia. “I just didn’t figure that one would need books on fishing.” Pondering over this a moment, Olivia smiles a bit. “I suppose I wouldn’t even know how to start, so a book would be helpful … if I wanted to fish.” She smiles to Evan as well. Almost as if the distance is too much for the young girl, she leans over and grabs at Evan’s hand, trying to draw him closer to her as she stands near Saphia, glancing only slightly down at the books.

“Well, I’ll hopefully bake it, I think,” Saphia muses, “Probably in a casserole of some sort. This is really only practice, though. You see, I’m hoping to start up a few fishing trips out onto the lake next year, if anyone else is interested and so, I thought, well, I’d really better learn how to fish in the first place.”

“Bake it? I’m sure the elves would make fish if you asked..” He’s nothing against cooking in general, but this still baffles Evan a bit. As he speaks, he responds readily to Olivia, accepting her hand into his and moving a step closer to her. His words, though, are still directed at Saphia. “Are there many.. edible fish in our lake?”

“But I enjoy cooking!” She answers, smiling, “That’s the whole idea behind my fishing trip. Which, erm, yes. You know, I don’t even know if we do have any edible fish in the lake, although I assume we must do since we have a giant monster in it, or what’s it eating? But I suppose it might eat som… AH!” She suddenly grabs her pole as it jerks in her hand. A fish is clearly seen on the end of her hook, flapping out of the water. She fights with it, trying to pull it in, but in the end it frees itself from the hook and vanishes back into the lake. However, Saphia, looking flushed and amazed, grins, “Well, I guess that answers that question, Mr. Geroff!”

“I wonder, it must be suppertime soon,” Olivia comments cheerfully. “All this talk of food has made me a bit hungry.” If the girl is trying to hint at going inside, she seems to be doing a rather poor job of hinting at this, though she does tug ever so gently on Evan’s hand. “Maybe you could get the house elves to make you some fish instead, and try catching some later.” The hufflepuff smiles to the younger student with a bit of a shrug. She isn’t sure of the appeal of fishing, but, of course, doesn’t want to belittle it.

Evan Geroff laughs quietly, giving Saphia a nod. “It does indeed. Half of it, anyway; I’ll know it’s edible when I see someone eat it.” Because magical fish could taste really, really terrible. “I don’t dislike cooking, but when every meal is made here..” Shrug. “You know, I don’t believe..” But whatever he doesn’t believe will remain unknown for the moment, the boy turning to Olivia and nodding again. “Let’s eat, then. Fish or no; I’ll settle for whatever they’ve made tonight.” He can always inquire after her name later, Olivia seems to know her. With that he turns toward the hand Olivia was tugging on, not letting go as he moves to walk with her back into the school. Only once does he turn his head to look back over his shoulder, adding a final comment to Saphia – “Good luck to you!”

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. This is the sound of Kelly glumly making her way down from the dorms, dragging her feet on the stairs as she goes. Thump. Thump. Thump. This is the sound of her heavy bookbag bouncing off the stairs as she drags it along the ground, not even going so far as to properly carry it. With one final thud, she reaches the bottom of the stairs, surveying the common room with a pathetic expression of melancholy – it is early evening, and a number of people are now returning from dinner. Judging from where she came from, and her pitiful expression, she was not among those at dinner, prefering instead to wallow in self-pity in her dorm. One can only do this for so long, however, so she makes her way to a couch, flopping down on it and glaring at anyone who dares approach her.

Sitting near to the fire in front of a table, there are an assortment of sweets sitting on the table in front of Briony, and she appears to be trying to levitate them into her mouth one at a time. “Hi, Kelly!” The girl calls with an energetic wave and a grin. Nothing more is said as the girl appears to be quite intent on getting a sherbet ball into her mouth whole without touching it. She doesn’t succeed, though she does manage to catch it before it falls on the floor and pops it into her mouth, hovering about six inches off of the floor just moments later.

Running inside the common room from the portrait hole Rawnie is in a big a hurry as ever and as usual she even tramples over a couple of the other first year girls who she beleives to be a bit slow. “Oh quit yer whinin would yer? It’s not like Im that ‘eavy. Your toe ain’t broke ner nothin.” She says to a boy who is hopping around holding his foot and looking daggers at her. Rawnie‘s green eyes fall on Kelly and since it has been some time since the young girl had spoken to her it only natrual that she strike up a fast paced conversation right? Rawnie sits on the floor by the couch Kelly is sitting on and smiles up at her. “Ello Kelly…. whatcher doin?” Yes stunningly profound conversation here.

Isn’t it obvious what Kelly‘s doing? She’s wallowing in self-pity. Still, this is hardly a witty retort and she glances over, first at Briony, then at Rawnie, glaring at both of them in turn, then closing her eyes. “I… don’t feel well.” She lies, curling up her legs beneath her and withdrawing herself further from the first year girl, raising one hand to her head to help add weight to the lie. Certainly, it’s not even completely a lie, if one considers being in a bad mood as being not ‘well’ in some way. “So, please, don’t bother me.”

“Y’want schum schweets?” Briony asks with her mouth full of sherbet ball still. The girl giggles a bit and waves to Rawnie. It is apparent that the girls have come a long way from their sorting-day tussle. “My Auntie Eva sent me all these sweets because of the ball, isn’t it great?” Briony doesn’t seem to mind that nobody else is really paying attention to her, as she will end up making them pay attention if she has anything to do with it. “It’s soooo good. Better than that Honeydukes stuff, because my cousin Maura makes it.” Not that anyone had asked her.

Turning her head and peering at Briony at the mention of sweets Rawnie is the first to swarm over to the second year. “Can I ‘ave some?” She asks with the prettyest smile that has ever graced her face. A momment later she turns to Kelly. “Maybe ya should see tha nurse then?”

Opening her eyes and glaring at Briony, Kelly doesn’t seem to feel this deserves any sort of verbal response, just shaking her head and closing her eyes again, wriggling into a little nest of cushions in the corner of the lounge. Then, she opens just one eye and peers at Rawnie, shaking her head again. “I don’t need to see the nurse. I just – leave me alone, alright?” Her eye snaps closed again, and she presses her lips together in annoyance. Exactly what has gotten the girl in such a dismal mood is left unsaid.

“Sure you can have some,” Briony tells Rawnie, pointing to her pile on the table with a boisterous giggle as she continues to hover. “You should go see my mum. She can fix EVERYTHING!” Briony says this loudly, causing some rather sullen looks from some nearby fifth years who seem intent on studying rather than listening to the second year’s outburts. “And she’l make you feel all better, that way you can enjoy the sweets with Rawnie and me!”

Hopping up quickly to grab a sherbert ball herself Rawnie pops it into her mouth and smiles wide at the sweet taste. “Shanksh” she says to Briony. Rawnie sits in the floor again and looks at Kelly for a long momment. “Wotsh wrong Shkelly?” He speaks around the ball of candy in her mouth.

“But Briony,” Kelly replies patiently (or, more appropriately, in a tone that indicates that she thinks she’s being patient and, by extension, has more in common with condescension), opening her eyes and sitting up to glare at the younger girl, “I don’t want to share sweets. I don’t want to go and see your mum and get her to fix me.” Turning her gaze on Rawnie, she rolls her eyes and eventually explains. “I’ve… not had a brilliant couple of weeks, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? Fine. I’ve had a terrible couple of weeks and I just want to be left alone.” For all that she insists on being left alone, there is an unmistakable tone in her voice: please, ask me more, so I can vent.

Briony frowns at Kelly, unsure of what to say or do. Briony‘s not used to dealing with rough moods. “I’m sorry you’re not feeling good, Kelly,” Briony tells her. “Do you like ‘em, Rawnie?” Briony asks with a big grin to the younger girl as she floats back to the ground and points her wand at a peppermint toad. “D’you reckon I can get the whole thing in my mouth? What do you think, Kelly?” The girl utters the levitating charm and the frog slowly rises into the air as the girl starts to direct it towards her already opened mouth.

Madly giggleing at Briony’s antics Rawnie cheers with a mouth full of sherbert ball as the older girl attempts to fit an entire peppermint toad in her mouth. Turning to Kelly once she has swalloed the candy Rawnie makes a bit of a face. “Yer wouldn’t ‘ave such a bad time-o-it if yer didn’t worry bout things so much…” Rawnie grabs a sherbert ball and tosses it in Kelly’s direction. She takes another and pops it into her mouth happily.

Reaching out, largely operating on automatic, to catch the sherbert ball (and missing, in fact, because she has made no pretense to being coordinated), Kelly seems rather put out by Briony’s lack of caring about her problems, be they real or imaginary. For this reason, perhaps, she turns her attention on Rawnie, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. “How am I supposed to stop worrying?” She asks, her tone edged with a scathing overtone. “It’s not like I can just pretend like it’s not going on. Did you know, I have a stepsister that I didn’t know about until my father wrote me a letter to wish me a happy birthday? And it’s March. My birthday was in October! And, and, Rafe isn’t talkign to me, and I can’t figure out why it is this time, and Icky Gravely in second year, he hugged me the other day, and that was just creepy, and, and, Suki Korosu-Dawson…” What crimes against her Suki has committed remain unsaid, and the third year falls into an uneasy silence, pulling further away from the other two girls and nestling deeper into her nest of cushion.

Briony pauses as Kelly points out all of her problems, the girl lets the toad fall back onto the table. “Isn’t Rafe always not talking to you?” the girl asks her friend — well, good acquaintance, at the very least — quirking her head and then reaching out and taking the peppermint toad, biting a bit off of it and chewing it as she tries to comprehend the confusions that love seems to behold for everyone she’s seen in love other than her parents. Or her aunts and uncles. Or Professor Fallon. Which really only leaves Kelly’s excursion into love.

“Well sittin there mopein bout it isn’t gunner make yer feel no better.” Rawnie says bluntly. She sits in the floor near Briony and smiles a little at the mention of Clavicle. “Next time ‘ee hugs yer kick ‘im and take his tatoo things. I wan’me some of em.”

Plucking a cushion from her nest, Kelly tosses it at the second year, nestling back into her nest with a particularly put-out expression, not even looking to see if her cushion hit the target. “It’s no business of yours whether he talks to me or not.” She replies sulkily, crossing her arms in annoyance. “And, in any case… well, okay, so we don’t really talk much, but it’d be nice if he had a better reason than ‘I don’t trust Charlie’ to ignore me.” This is all that she offers on the topic, turning a particularly venomous glare on Rawnie. “What else am I supposed to do? Tell my father that I actually turned fourteen last October? Kick Gravely until he leaves me alone?” Although that does sound like fun. “And what about Korosu-Dawson, and Rafe, and my stepsister? Kicking,” sadly, “doesn’t solve everything.”

“Well…” Briony starts and then oofs as she is hit with the pillow. “That was really mean, Kelly! What’d I ever do to you?” Briony‘s face gets more serious and she throws the pillow back at Kelly. “Anyway, I’m sorry about all that, but why don’t you just have some candies? Candy fixes everything that my mum can’t.” The girl shrugs and takes another bite of her peppermint frog. Pausing a moment, Briony turns her face to Rawnie. “What tattoo things are you talking about? I’ve never heard of them.”

Grinning toothily Rawnie “Yes! Just kick him till ‘ee gets tha point yer know? Over an over …. or till ‘ee gives you all them tatoos.” She says before turning to Briony. “Oh ‘ee sells neat pictures what ‘ee calls tatoos and they move around an stuff like paintings only on yer skin.” She reaches over and takes a peppermint toad herself and poke it in the belly to watch it squirm before savagley biting it’s head off.

Though she opens her mouth to make some sort of fiery comeback, Kelly is silent for a moment. What exactly did Briony do? ‘You made a very valid, truthful point about my relationship with Rafe which I find offensive only because of the inherent truth in it’ isn’t a very good comeback, all told. After a moment of glaring and opening and closing her mouth angrily, she stands up, grabs her bookbag, and storms back up the stairs without a word, though her loud stomping more than accounts for that. So, she absolutely does not have a comeback.

Staring as Kelly runs off, Briony doesn’t seem to know what to make of it. “Wanna go get a snack?” Briony asks to Rawnie, almost as if nothing had happened just a moment before. Briony‘s demeanor is slightly altered from the scene that has just played out, but for the most part she is still the same hyper girl that she was before the outburst, and one can imagine that she will will not linger long over having a pillow thrown at her. “I know how to get into the kitchens, and the houseelves are awful nice.”

Rawnie Weller gives a nod to Rawnie as she stands up to brush off her robes. “Arright! I never met any house-elves before might be intrestin I reckon.” Rawnie smiles and devours the rest of her toad and heads to the portrait hole at top speed. “Lead tha way Briony!”

“Alright!” Briony responds as Rawnie agrees to her proposed excursion. Quickly sweeping her sweets into the bag that she was gifted them in. It is just a moment before she has shoved the bag into her pocket and hops up, trotting behind Rawnie towards the entrance of the commonroom, making her way out of the area and back into the hallways, headed towards the kitchens for unknown goodies.

“The room was chilled by the silence. Harriet had been honest with all of them, but the honesty had cut through the ties of their friendships, and even the ties of blood. The first threads had unraveled, and… and…” Saphia rips a page out of the dragonhide notebook she carries, and grumbles, “And why can’t I make this /work/?” Crinkling the paper up into a ball, she sets it delicately onto the ground next to her, as she sits curled up next to the side of the path, smelling the scent of the flowers. She’d hoped it would inspire her writing, but it hadn’t. Plus, it really was cold. She curls up in her winter robes, shivering slightly despite her Ravenclaw quidditch scarf being wrapped tightly around her neck.

“Maybe there are some more out here?” Noémie comments to Joseph, her long robes rather bulkier than usual, as if she’s got several extra layers of clothing on beneath them. Her hair is loose and rather voluminous today, though the ends of her hair are all tucked into her white scarf, which is wound around her neck for warmth. Matching gloves are on her hands and she holds a self-inking quill and some parchment as she walks slowly along the path. “Ugh, isn’t it spring yet?” she comments as they make their way down the eastern path. “Oh, hello, Saphia. I didn’t expect to see you out here in the cold.” Her tone is congenial as she pauses, waiting for Joseph to catch up to her.

For his part, Joseph is moving along much more slowly behind Noémie, working his way through a particularly large slab of chocolate as he walks. If he actually expects to eat it all in one sitting without making himself ill, he is truly the sweets master. After a moment, he offers, in a tone almost comically somber, “It will never be spring, Noémie, my sweet. I read in the paper just this morning that Dark Wizards from deepest Africa have stolen our spring and are selling it on the black market.” His expression is completely deadpan as he delivers this line, though he does spoil it a little by taking another bite of chocolate.

Trudging across the grass plodding along with heavy steps as always while watching her feet Rawnie makes his way onto the path. With all her whinterwear on she looks a bit like a fat tick about to pop… a fat tick with red and green mittens and a bright yellow puffball hat… Only just catching the end of Joseph statement as she passes Rawnie looks up a bit surprised and squeaks out a bit excitedly. “Oh! Do yer think he will come ter ‘ogwarts do yer? I’d like ter see me a Dark Wizard once.” Now why a season stealing Dark Wizard would come to Hogwarts isn’t exactly clear but Rawnie seems to beleive it could logically happen.

Saphia Bona blushes as she spots the prefect and a friend of hers walking toward her, and attempts (futiley) to hide the small pile of rejected chapters on the ground next to her. “Um…” she whispers, her tone frenetic and worried, “Um…” She looks left and right. “Um, hello, Ms. Ribouet… I’m, um… I’m planning for the next match! Strategies and …. statistics… and… such. Um. Yes!” She lies terribly.

Noémie makes no response, but she does turn and glance at Joseph, before rolling her eyes and looking away again. “Oh? Can I see?” Noémie asks, glancing over towards Saphia’s work. Though it does not look much like statistics of any sort, Noémie doesn’t say anything about it, and instead smiles at the second year. “After all, we’ve got that game coming up in a couple of days, and I should think it terribly useful to be able to brief everyone one last time if there’s something we didn’t know before.” Glancing back to Joseph, Noémie finally decides to respond. “You oughtn’t say such things around younger students, even in jest.”

Turning on Rawnie, nodding his head somberly even as he takes another small bite of his chocolate and chews it thoughtfully, when Joseph replies, his tone and expression are as emotionless as he can possibly muster. “Yes. He will come to Hogwarts, young one.” He glances over at Noémie, his expression fleetingly pleading, as if this will be the one chance he gets to try and test the gullibility of this particular student, before he turns back to Rawnie seriously. “Now that he has stolen spring, he is intent on pilfering all the left shoes he can get, and where better to look for shoes than a wizarding boarding school?” A smirk flickers on the edge of his lips, giving away the joke (assuming that his jest wasn’t evident enough from the sheer outrageousness of his claim), though he covers it up quickly with – what else? – another bite of the chocolate, and quickly turns to face Noémie again. “It’s just a bit of fun.” He explains quietly. “She didn’t really believe me.”

“Blimey!” Comes loud response from the little gryffindor girl. Rawnie steps in closer to Joseph holding her mittens to the front of her thick winter robes and her wide greeny eyes stare at the older studen from behind a ghastly green checkered blue and orange scarf. “Do tha’ Professors know ‘ees comin? And are they gunner be able ter stop ‘im?” Obviously Rawnie will beleive anything that an older person tells her. After all she did stay up all christmass eve trying to capture the elusive St. Nick. “Is’ee comin soon? Im gunner hide all the left shoes I can find!”

“No!” Saphia blinks, looking to Noémie. “I’m… um, I’m not finished, and… and…” Sighing, she finally opens up her notebook. “I really will come up with some strategies for practice, I promise. It’s just that I can’t get this story right, it keeps becoming too sweet in the closing chapters.” And, finally stressed to the point of snapping, she whispers earnestly to Rawnie, “You know, I’ve heard that since the season’s going to be stolen, all the assignment dates have been moved up to before the season would begin. You’d better go run now and get started on them.” Her face adopts a flat, deadpan expression as she says it.

Noémie just grins a bit down at Saphia and glances down again. “Well, a little sweetness never hurt anyone. Perhaps you oculd finish writing it, and then rewrite it to work the way you want it to.” This suggestion is hardly out of her mouth before she turns to completely look at Joseph, and then to Rawnie. The girl seems enthralled with the idea, but Noémie cannot help putting her hands on her hips, her parchment and quill still in hand. “Honestly, Joseph,” is all she says, though she looks at him half-bemused.

“Very soon.” Joseph tells the young girl as he whirls around to face Rawnie again, his expression a carefully maintained blank. “And yes, this, this girl is correct. The little Ravenclaw one.” Not even commenting on the fact that he can’t recall the girl’s name, if he even knows it, he turns back to face Noémie, affecting a charming smile. At least, he probably thinks it’s a charming smile. “I’m sorry, Noémie.” He replies, looking at least marginally sincere rather than completely deadpan. “Would you like some chocolate?” He offers forth the bar earnestly, as if this will amend any problems that they may have. No, really. It will. It’s chocolate.

Looking between the three older students with an astonished expression on her face Rawnie brings her mittens up to her nose to rub the coldness out. “Who care’s about asignments! A dark wizard is comin ter ‘ogwarts!” She squeals excitedly and seems to litterally bounce rappidly on the spot. “Theres gunner be mayhem in tha halls and wotnot! The Professors are gunner care bout no silly essays an’all that.”

Saphia Bona doesn’t miss a beat, and continues to say earnestly, “Actually, they’re going to care more than ever. Think about what happens if the Dark Wizard /wins/. There won’t be a Hogwarts any more. This is the last chance for Hogwarts to get out qualified students, and why, with Dark Wizards on the prowl, they’re going to be more important than ever! I’m working on mine right now, don’t you see?” She points to her notebook and nods seriously with a quick glance to Noémie.

“Oh, honestly,” Noémie comments, shaking her head. “There are no Dark Wizards who are stealing spring,” she tells the first year, her face looking more stern. “Nothing’s changing, it’s just not time for spring yet, that’s all.” She crosses her arms, and gives a stern look to Joseph, before turning a similar glance to Saphia. “I could let Professor Morgan know that you’re both picking on younger students.” This last threat seems halfhearted, and indeed it is, because Noémie herself doesn’t mind a bit of ribbing on small scales herself, after all.

“I’m not picking on anyone.” Joseph protests, though he does take another bite out of his chocolate and turns away from Noémie huffily, as if he had taken some grave offense to her words. “And you can’t boss me around, just because you’re a whole day older than me.” Though she might be able to do so as she is a prefect. Might. And another bite out of the chocolate, because the poor boy’s sweet tooth is not yet satiated. Yes, he is plowing through it. He won’t have any appetite for his next meal, at this rate.

Saphia Bona bursts out laughing as soon as Noémie speaks, and was apparently holding in a serious case of the giggles the whole time. “I… I’m so sorry, Ms. Ribouet… and to you too, I’m so… ” Giggle. “Sorry.” Curling herself up further, she continues to get little bursts of giggling.

The wide eye’d expression turns into an angry glare at Joseph and Saphia. “You think yer funny do yer? Liein ter a helpless lil’ girl?” Did Rawnie just willingly call herself a helpless little girl? “Well I didn’t beleive a word-o-it! I were just um…. tryin ter….” Rawnie furrows her brow a little when she can’t think of a good exscuse and goes trounceing back to the castle angrily without saying anything else.

The giggles fade out, and a more concerned look flits over Saphia‘s face as Rawnie storms off. “O… oh. Oh no.” She quickly begins to pack up, but it’s too late. Rawnie’s already far too far away. “Oh no.” She whispers, looking terribly concerned.

“Helpless?” Noémie comments, stifling her own laugh, and shakes her head. “You two, you’re awful.” She tells her housemates and looks about. “Did you actually find anything for the project anyway, Joseph, or were you too busy telling a first year that Dark Wizards are going to eat her?” The fifth year raises an eyebrow at him, then flashes a grin at the giggling Saphia before her face darkens with seriousness. “She’ll get over it, I’m sure. Don’t fret on it. Just don’t keep on it next time, right?”

Putting his hands on his hips in protest and turning to face Noémie again, Joseph looks rather dramatically horrified at the suggestion. “I didn’t say the Dark Wizards were going to /eat/ her, Noémie. Just that they were going to steal her left shoes. Besides, it was her silly fault for believing me. If people weren’t so gullible, I wouldn’t say such things.” Then, he shrugs vaguely, biting into his chocolate bar. This boy really must live off sugar and the life force in the air. “I didn’t find anything relevant to the project, though, no.”

Saphia Bona sighs, and wanders back. “Jo…Joseph? When you go on your next trip to Hogsmeade, would you buy some Honeydukes chocolate for me? I’ll need some. I think I’m low on self-raising flour, too. I don’t know if you can get that in Hogsmeade, though.” She seems completely despondant now. “An… and can I have some of that chocolate now, Joseph?”

“Oh, are you going to make something for her?” Noémie comments to Saphia with a chuckle, then turns and rolls her eyes at Joseph again. “Honestly, how are you to expect to do well on your OWLs if you don’t do /anything/?” She glances at the chocolate only momentarily and then shakes herself, as if trying to resist the urge to ask for some. “We’re going to have to finish this project sooner or later. And I /would/ prefer sooner.” She turns back to Saphia. “What are you going to make?”

For a fleeting moment, Joseph‘s expression indicates that he would love nothing more than to invent some witty comeback, denying the girl chocolate for some carefully concocted and curiously deadpan reason – however, he bites the statement back, glancing sidelong at Noémie, then holding the chocolate out to the small girl. “Go for your life. I have plenty. Though, yes, I do need to stock up again, so I suppose I can get a little extra for you.” A pause, and he shrugs at Noémie. “I’ll seduce the professors with my stunning good looks. More than one charmer in my family has gotten straight ‘O’s that way.” Yes, he couldn’t hold back some sort of totally deadpan comeback for too long, with this one being particularly tasteless.

“Pignolata, if I can pull it off,” Saphia whispers, quietly. “But I’m not very good at it. My grandfather is much better.” She chews a small piece of the chocolate and then whispers, “Or if it doesn’t work, chocolate cake. Maybe with strawberries. Do you think she’d like that?” Her voice, quiet as it is, has a slight, far-off quality as she loses herself in thought.

“That’s good to know, Joseph,” Noémie retorts quickly. “I’ll be sure to bring it up to Missus Wexler when I see her next in the Hospital wing.” A grin spreads across Noémie‘s face as she says this, then pulls a bit of crumpled and folded parchment out of her pocket, putting her quill tip in it and then tucking them back into her pocket. The parchment is rolled up and tucked into the other rather deep pocket and she crosses her arms across her chest again. Hearing Saphia’s voice again barely waft through the air, Noémie smiles to the girl. “I’m sure she’ll love having that. I don’t know many little girls who wouldn’t.” At this, Noémie winks.

Smiling that same ‘I think I’m being charming’ smile in turn, Joseph breathes on his knuckles and polishes them on the front of his robes dramatically. “I’ll do fine, Noémie. Piece of cake. I could do with a piece of cake about now, on that note.” Easily distracted as always, the lad seems on the brink of wandering off and finding himself some cake, though he remains there, if only because the prefect might beat him if he wanders off now.

Saphia Bona blinking out of her reverie, Saphia smiles to Noémi, “Miss Ribouet, I promise I’ll still come up with those strategies. I think we need to make good use of our beaters…” She trails off, though, and then returns her thoughts to pastries.

“Well, let me know if you come up with something before the game, and I’ll make sure to relay it to the team,” Noémie comments and smiles, patting Saphia on the shoulder. “Hopefully we’ve put in enough practice to trump Slytherin this weekend.” She chuckles a bit to herself and looks at Joseph pointedly. “So, since we’re not finding anything out here, can we at /least/ get started on our charts for this project?” Knowing full well that she’s going to end up doing most of the work, Noémie still suggests this. At least she’s trying.

Shrugging his shoulders again vaguely, Joseph doesn’t say anything for a moment, though he does bend over and pick a small flower, which he hands to Noémie, along with the grave remark, “Merry Christmas, Noémie.” He pauses briefly, keeping this same solemn expression, though the mood is broken as he turns to face Saphia, brow wrinkled in confusion. “Did you ever return that bar of chocolate to me? I don’t think you did.” Well, it was lovely while it lasted.

Saphia Bona blinks, and breaks off a tiny little piece for herself while handing back the rest to Joseph and smiling, “Thank you so much, Mr… um… Mr Sir.” She blushes and bites her tongue mentally, before whispering, “I’m going to try and finish this story. Thank you, Miss Ribouet. Thank you, Mr.” She smiles, and begins picking up her paper.

“Just come in before it gets too chilly. Last thing we need is you getting frostbite and getting laid up for a few days in the Hospital Wing.” Noémie smiles to her and raises an eyebrow as Joseph hands her a flower. “Cute,” she tells him. “I’ll see you later,” she tells Saphia and without much else to say, she turns and strides back towards the school, her robes trailing behind her a bit, clearly being a bit long for her, though it doesn’t slow her down any.

Sighing heavily, if rather over-dramatically, Joseph shakes his head at Saphia. “I’d much rather be ‘Jo-Joseph‘ than ‘Mister Sir’.” He informs her, his expression turning carefully blank again, though a twinkle remains in his eye as he accepts the chocolate back. “Though, if you do feel the irrepressible need to refer to me by some title, ‘Lord and Master Joseph Wexler‘ is acceptable.” Glancing at Noémie as she departs, he offers one last smile to the smaller girl, then follows her hastily.

Sometime in the grace period between classes and dinner, where the students aren’t expected to be anywhere in particular, Kelly Pantall makes her way out of the castle, no concession given to the weather except for her usual school robes and a pair of blue woolen gloves. As might be expected, there are goosebumps on all her visible flesh and her arms are wrapped tightly around herself to stave off the cold – exactly how well this actually works is questionable, but her expression is set with determination and she bites down on her lower lip. Oh, no, while there’s any chance of anyone seeing her, she’s not intending to shiver from the cold, even if it is snowing and she’s scarcely protected against a stiff wind.

Crashing out the grand front doors of Hogwarts, Kalynn shrieks as Briony gains on her. “Told you I can run down stairs faster,” giggles Kalynn, shooting a glance over her shoulder at the trailing Gryffindor. Nevermind that Kalynn had a good half-minute head start. “Brionyyy,” Kalynn cries, slowing down and bringing her hands up to her head. “I think my braids are getting loose. The ribbons don’t help to hold them in!” the little girl looks a bit panicked as she turns backwards to look at Briony. “How are yours holding up?” she asks, stepping slowly into the snow.

Truth be told, Briony‘s look like they’ve not fared any better. One side seems to be losing its ribbon entirely while the other braid slowly is becoming unraveled. “I think we need more practice is all, Kalynn,” Briony answers, trying to resist the urge to pull on her braids as she tugs on her scarf to warm her better. “Ah, it’s snowing again,” she comments and sighs a bit throwing the unravelling braid over her shoulder. “We should redo them again, Kalynn.”

Standing about three feet away from the school building, Aisling has her head thrown back, with her tongue poking out, trying to eat some snowflakes. As she listens to the Gryffindors coming outside, she pulls her tongue in and stands up straightly, taking in the scene properly. Seeing Kelly, the young girl’s eyes narrow, and she glances between Kelly and the snow several times, before scooping up some frustratingly cold snow and trying to make a proper snowball.

Well Kelly, Kalynn and Briony aren’t the only Gryffindor girls who have come out to enjoy the snow. Rawnie is running outside the front doors just after Briony with a scarf wrapped tightly over her small face and a hat down around her ears. The affect is a bit comical to look at but at least its warm. Her cloak is on backwards and her socks seem to be tripple layered today with mismatching mittens on her hands and a feirce michevious glint in her little green eyes as if searching out a target. Yes Rawnie is going to take no prisoners today.

Narrowing her eyes at the ground in front of her, as if the patch of snow has committed some heinous crime against her, Kelly bites down all the harder on her lip and draws herself a little bit away from her raucous housemates. Whatever the others happen to be doing, she’s certainly not enjoying the snow. Exactly why she continues to stand there, looking grumpy and glaring at the snow, is uncertain. There are certainly other, quieter places to go and think – but she’s here now, and no raucous students are going to stop her.

“You mean right now?” Kalynn replies to Briony, biting her lip and surely not resisting her urge to tug on the end of a sad-looking braid. “It’s to hard standing up, plus we need a comb,” Kalynn points out, sighing and glancing around. Upon spotting Kelly, Kalynn‘s eyebrows raise up as she asks, “What’s Kelly doing? It’s cold out here,” the little girl notes as she flings a dragging end of her scarf around her neck. Giggling at the passing Rawnie, Kalynn says in a cheerful tone, “But not that cold, Rawnie!”

“Well, not right now, of course!” Briony replies with a giggle to her friend. “I think I’m going to take mine out, though, because it’s going to fall out and I don’t want to lose these pretty ribbons so close to Christmas. Mum and dad might not get me more otherwise!” Briony looks truly concerned at the prospect of this, and therefore gingerly unties the ribbons and unravels the braids, putting the ribbons into her sweater pocket and then readjusting her scarf around her neck, pulling the remainder of her now-kinky hair to hang free and loose. “I like it, don’t you?” Briony comments, rubbing her arms, then falling to the ground with a giggle. “Snow angel!” She starts to slide her arms and legs back and forth, making exactly what she has just shouted about.

Clavicle Gravely sends the owl off to the owlery and scoops to make a snowball. “Oy! Kelly!”

When greet Rawnie smiles and waves a bright red mitten to Kalynn but with the green Mitten she is busy scooping up some snow. After rolling it into a tight ball Rawnie flings the snowball at the poor unsuspecting Kelly. What are friends for right?

Clavicle Gravely gins hugely as he tosses the snowball up and catches it. “Want to have a snowball fight then?” he grins hugely at the girl. “Or are you chicken.”

Seeing Rawnie’s snowball hit Kelly, Aisling chuckles and tugs on one of her two long plaits with one hand, the other still holding her malformed snowball. Letting go of her plait, she tries again to form her snowball properly. Having gotten as far along in making her snowball as she feels she’s going to get, she throws it in the direction of Clavicle, before looking around for a tree to hide behind.

Alerted back to the goings-on around her at the sound of Clavicle’s voice, Kelly barely has time to even think about formulating a response before Rawnie begins throwing snowballs at her nonetheless. As much as she tries to dive out of the way, she moves too late and the snowball hits her square in the chest. “Nice one, idiot!” She snaps in response, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at the girl. “And – what? No, I do not want to have a snowball fight with anyone, especially not you or the stupid little kid!” Because, obviously, Rawnie is such a little kid compared to the big ol’ third year. Nonetheless, she bends over and begins forming a snowball. Just in the name of revenge, of course.

“Look, Kalynn! They’re throwing Snowballs!” Briony squeals a bit more loudly than her stealthy crawling up from her snowangel would have her appear. Soon she is gathering her own snowball from the snow that she has displaced with her angel and ducking down low, as if being huddled will keep her hidden until the most opportune moment. Without a moment’s thought, she chucks her snowball at Rawnie, giggling fiercely. “Take that, firstie!” she calls and looks to Kalynn with a grin on her face.

Clavicle Gravely grins and wings the snowball at Kelly’s back neck while she’s bending over. to get it all down her robe, Because he is an evil second year of course. “Well then, seeing as you aren’t in a snowball fight. I suppose I shouldn’t have done that then! HAH!”

“Hey I ain’t stupid!” Rawnie stomps her foot in the snow but it just dosn’t have the effect that it would had it been in doors on the hard stone floors. “You just wait Kelly! Im gunner make you soaking wet!” Rawnie kneels down getting another large hand full of snow. Just as the little girl has her snowball nice and packed she gets clobered down the front with snow. “Ah! Hey! Yer gonna pay!” Rawnie instead tosses her snowball at Briony!

Kalynn DeNatale can hardly contain her laugher and excitement. “Nice angel, Bri,” the girl comments with a giggle as she bends down to pack a snowball of her very own. Glancing up in time to see Rawnie send a projectile at her friend, Kalynn sets hers loose on Rawnie with quite a hard throw for the size of the girl. “Hah!” Kalynn shouts before kneeling again, trying to look out for snow coming in her direction.

“You are SO going to pay, Icky!” Kelly snaps in response – her snowball formulated, she apparently forgets about her intent to attack Rawnie and instead flings it at Clavicle. Her aim is so poor that Clavicle is probably the least likely person to actually be hit by it, but it’s easy enough to tell that she’s aiming it particularly at him. As for the nickname – as always, her tone wavers between insult and endearment, never entirely sure whether she considers her nickname for him a good thing or not. “I didn’t want to fight with anyone, but – oh, oh, you FAIL, Icky!” And, again, she forms another snowball, eyes darting around for the most appropriate target. She hasn’t totally given up on the firstie, yet.

Briony is beaned directly in the top of the head and gasps. “Oh no, you did not!” she calls to Rawnie. “Hey, let’s create a fort here. I bet we could use this snow here and push it all together for a wall!” The girl giggles and starts pushing together a manmade snowdrift of sorts while glancing every few moments at the action out yonder. She soon seems to lose interest in her half-made fort and starts packing up another snowball, sending it flying in Kelly’s direction this time, with a grin now spread wide across her face.

Rawnie Weller is again pelted with a snowball and now she is quick to dive behind one of the shrubs. “Hey! No fair gangin up!” He voice is full of laughter however and she makes herself busy scooping up a bit of snow to make another deadly snowball of Gryffindor…. revenge. She pops up from behind her shrub for only a second flinging her snowball at Kalynn!

Clavicle Gravely LAUGHS as he runs to the side. He tries to grab a set of more snow to pack it as he dodges. “Come on then…you weren’t even trying!” He gets another one ready “Are we doin’ teams here or is this a free for all?”

From behind her tree, Aisling constructs another snowball, packing it together as tightly as she can. Stepping out in front of the tree, forgetting again about protection from thrown objects – after all, no one’s thrown anything at her yet! – she throws her snowball towards Kelly with relatively good aim – as in, it didn’t go backwads – and giggling like, well, like an eleven year old schoolgirl. Why not? She is. Glancing at Clavicle, she yells, “Free for all!”

“Aaah!” shrieks Kalynn, turning her back on an incoming snowball which hits her left shoulder. “Okay, Rawnie,” Kalynn admits as she is rolling her next ball of frozen ammunition. “Huuuuh!” Kalynn discharges with the effort of her present chucking of her snowball at Clavicle. “Ruuun!” Kalynn yells, grinning as she looks to Rawnie and Briony in turn. The little girl nods to Briony’s suggestion of a fort as she scurries behind her friend.

As she is hit again by two snowballs, first Briony’s, then Aisling’s, Kelly yelps out in response and drops her snowball, throwing herself down into the snow, army-crawling along the ground (and getting her robes thoroughly soaked in the meantime) until she reaches the relative safety of the trees, waiting in hiding until someone comes near. Who throws snowballs at an enemy when you can crash-tackle them and sit on them until they apologise?

Rawnie Weller spies Aisling who seems to be the only one who is dry so far. Very quietly she stoops down behind her shrub and makes another snowball before popping up and flinging it at her! “Take that girl I never met!”

Clavicle Gravely is laughing hugely as Kalynn’s snowball pelts the side of his head. “Hey!” He turns and wings the snowball at her. Quidditch chasing practice is paying off. He laughs as he sees Kelly army crawling, so hard in fact he falls over into the snow.

Aisling O‘Cormac gets hit in the shoulder by a snowball, splashing wetness all over the girl’s left side. Bending down, she quickly makes some snowballs, aiming for quantity rather than quality. Throwing one at both Clavicle and Kelly while they’re down, she also throws another one towards Rawnie. “AND YOU HAVE SO MET ME!” she yells at the girl as well.

Though she does, in fact, get hit by Aisling’s next snowball, Kelly pays little mind to the goings-on until she is in a safe place to hide until she can find someone to tackle. Anyone? Aaaaanyone? And yes, now she’s resting against a tree breathlessly, soaked to her skin and not wearing very useful clothing for this activity – but, but, is that a smile peeking through her grim expression? Could she actually be having fun?

Rawnie Weller manages to duck down behind her shrub before Aisling’s snowball hits her. She giggles maddly and waits for what seems like forever to an eleven year old. She is quietly rolling many snowballs and begins pileing them up behind her shrub for rapid fire action later.

Clavicle Gravely scrabbles up and goes a Kelly hunting. He grins as he makes a particularly BIG snowball as he follows the Kelly tracks. He hand motions to Kalynn to go around the other side of the tree!

Briony is soon getting another group of snowballs together before here. “Here, Kalynn, we can share,” she offers quite generously and giggles rather loudly, ducking behind the fort as a stray snowball comes her way. It skims her hair, which is actually already quite damp from her snowangel and the one snowball she’s already been hit with. Quickly, she begins to fire out snowballs, at whomever they might fly, one after another, until she has managed to throw at least ten out into the area on the lawn.

Nodding to Clavicle, Kalynn leaves the protective safety of the ‘behind Briony’ with a laugh and an “Okay!” and stoops down to scoop up two of the snowballs and walks in a manner that could not possibly be considered stealthy by anyone. Going around the other side of the tree, Kalynn grins as she sees Kelly. “Kellllyyyyy,” Kalynn sings, grinning.

Having made a bunch of snowballs, Aisling excitedly throws them in every direction she can see people, leaving one left. Stalking towards Rawnie, hides behind several bushes and shrubs, trying to remain surreptious, and unseen. This may or may not work, seeing as the scarf around her neck is bright orange.

Being a bit preocupied by her own snowball store Rawnie finally completes her ammo pile. Rawnie peeks over her shrub and begins lobbing snowballs at Briony’s fort! “Im gunner bombard yer fort and take over!” She giggles and does her best imitation of a pirate laugh.

At the sound of Kalynn’s voice behind her, Kelly turns – not only turns, in fact, but dives forward, planting her shoulder in the poor girl’s stomach and possibly pushing her over onto the ground. “Aha! Gotcha!” At a bit of a loss as to what to do next, she merely offers a second, “Aha!” and tries to incapacitate the other Gryffindor as much as possible, pinning her arms down and so forth. “Now, apologise!”

Still lobbing snowballs as fast as she can and hoping that they’re hitting someone, Briony just narrows her eyes and throws the orbs harder as Rawnie approaches, hardly waiting a moment to aim before they are out of her hands and headed toward the younger girl. “You will never get my fort!” Neverminding that the fort is really more of Briony hiding behind a pile of poorly packed snow, Briony is protective of it! After all, once hers, always hers.

Coughing and sputtering with far more drama than is warranted for her present situation (though there is surprise in Kalynn‘s eyes as she goes down and is pinned), Kalynn whines and cries with false passion as she wails, “I am sorrrrrry, Kelly! Queen Kelly!” she tacks on with a happy laugh. “Let me goooo!” Kalynn says as her hands writhe in resistance.

Apparently concluding that this just isn’t fun enough, Kelly sits herself on Kalynn, still pinning her arms down. “You’re not really sorry! You’re just saying that!” As much as the older girl tries to sound serious and annoyed, she can’t help but giggle – yes, giggle – a little bit. “But I’ll accept your apology, if you attack Icky for me.”

Stalking ever closer to Rawnie, Aisling grins happily with enjoyment as she prepares to tackles the other firstie and smother her last snowball into her hair. Creeping ever closer, she lets out a yell of enjoyment as she leaps for Rawnie.

“Ooooffh”, is Kalynn‘s release as she is sat on, though not for the first time in her life. It was one of her brothers’ favourite pastimes before she came to Hogwarts to pin her down, and she was always (and continues to be) to little and weak to resist such attacks. But Kalynn nods as well as she can. “Okay, Kelly,” she agrees, still writhing. “Who’s Icky?”

“Ack!” Yells Rawnie as she is tackled into the snow just in time to miss being hit by Briony’s snowball. Shaking her head Rawnie rolls around with Aisling trying to smoosh a snowball into her hair as well but mostly shes just getting the two of them soaked.

“ClavICle.” Kelly explains pompously, as if it was obviously to anyone who gave it any thought, though she does get distracted rather quickly and looks around. “Well. Or Rawnie. Yeah, get Rawnie for me.” She doesn’t move from her seat on the poor girl, however, waiting for a response to her next instruction. “Is that an acceptable – stop WIGGLING! – agreement?” Because, obviously, the younger girl has no right to wiggle when Kelly wants to sit on her.

Giggling yet more, Kalynn nods before wondering if that counted as wiggling and switches to saying, “Yes, very acceptable,” and squinting her eyes shut. “Now get off me, Kelly! I’ll get Rawnie!” Warm memories of scrapping on the floor of her house in Coventry flood back to her as she shouts “Hurrrr!” and tries to no avail to heave Kelly off of her.

Giggling rather loudly as she watches Rawnie get tackled by the other firstie, Briony pauses in her snowball throwing temporarily, if only to gear herself back up to lob snowballs toward Aisling. It is only a moment before she recognizes that there is some action going on behind her. “Hey, get off of Kalynn!” she calls to Kelly. “She’s on my team!” There are teams?” Soon Briony‘s snowballs are redirected towards Kelly in attempts to knock her off. How well this might work, well, only fate can tell.

Aisling O‘Cormac giggles as she wrestles in the snow with her fellow first year, getting everyone involved wet in the process. Trying to get Rawnie wetter than her, however, doesn’t appear to be working, although the young girl seems quite happy anyway. “Hey, look at that!” she yells to Rawnie, trying to get some snow into the other girl’s mouth.

Clavicle Gravely grins and Hurls the Huge snowball at the pair of girls, hoping to hit the victorious sitter! “HAH!” two for the price of one. It seems a good enough idea! “Look out below!” but it would have to be a lucky throw to actually hit the two girls.

Yes, Kelly does get hit with these snowballs, and yes, she does roll off Kalynn and scampers off behind a tree again, though whether the two events are actually linked in any way is entirely in the eye of the beholder. After a moment, the third year seems to conclude that only sissies hide behind trees, so she hoists herself up into the branches, scooping a handful of snow from where it rests on the bough, and flings it at Clavicle. “TAKE THAT, ICKY!”

Having so much fun and being in such a good mood Rawnie is quite gullible and opens her mouth to say “What?” Only to have it stuffed full of snow. “Ptew! Hey yer can’t do that!” Rawnie rolls around some more quite feisty with the other little girl picking up clumps of snow and squishing them into Aisling’s face. She seems to have lost her hat and scarf in the tussle.

Clavicle Gravely is thwumped and he dramatically hops backwards like a bad western silent film and flops back first in the snow. “Argh!” He lays, splayed out byt the massive force of the…err…snow.

Set to her mission, Kalynn‘s eyebrows furrow as she concentrates on making an extra big snowball. “Okay Kelly, watch this!” she shouts as she hurls her new charge in Rawnie’s direction. “Consider the deal re-payed!” yells Kalynn with a laugh, watching to see if her snowball hits. If it doesn’t, Kalynn plans on running, lest Kelly tackles her again in exchange for missing her target.

Seeing as Kelly is rather literally up a tree, flinging handfuls of snow (not even properly formed snowballs, just handfuls of snow) at those on the ground – mostly Clavicle, all told, though with the occasional handful flung towards Briony or Rawnie, it is unlikely that she will care terribly much about whether Kalynn comes through. Of course, playing sniper up in the tree only lasts so long, especially for a cold, wet, uncoordinated Pantall… who falls out of the tree with a yelp.

Squealing with the surprise of the impact, Aisling rolls over, at looks at Rawnie, having stopped wrestling with her. “Do you think we should get Kalynn for that?” she asks the other first year, already starting on a stockpile of snowballs.

Rawnie Weller giggles and rolls onto her back and sits up. “Yeah! Lets geter!” Rawnie dives behind the shrub and quickly begins lobbing snowballs at Kalynn!

Aisling O‘Cormac happily joins Rawnie, throwing masses of snowballs at Kalynn. “AHA!” she yells, “Got you!”

“Aah! Ahhhh ahhh!!” yells Kalynn between laughing fits and getting pelted continuously by wet snowballs. “Help meee!” Kalynn pleas as she heads in the direction of the castle. “I’m soaked!” she informs Briony as she passes by her. Kalynn‘s hair is, indeed, soaked and matted, showing no signs of having been nicely braided just hours before. “I’m going to go dry off! Get Rawnie for me!” is Kalynn‘s last request as she flees towards the warmth of her house’s common room.

Clavicle Gravely ‘s head pops up and he laughs. he hops up and tries to return the dive tackle Kelly pulled on Kalynn! Except. He flies right over her and faceplants into the snow. Ooooof… He actually leaves an impact trench in the snow. “Ow.”

Running away towards the castle, Aisling laughs uproariously, happy with the outcome of her time spent outside today. Throwing a last snowball in the vague direction of Kelly, she runs inside the big castle doors, to sanctuary.

“Oy, wait for me, Kalynn!” Briony calls, getting hit with a few of the last snowballs as she attempts to escape. “We can try our braids again now that our hair is all wet,” the girl suggest with a boisterous laugh. The two of them soon are on their way inside, towards warmth and security away from the cold, cold snow. “That was fun!” echoes through the halls as Briony clomps through them rather loudly.

Rawnie Weller hurrys to pick up her hat and scarf before she can get pelted anymore. She is positivley soaked to the bone as she runs inside giggleing happily.

Even though she just fell out of a tree, even though people are throwing balls of wet, cold stuff at her, even though she’s inappropriately dressed for the weather and second years are trying to tackle her, Kelly can’t seem to do anything except lie in the snow laughing, flat on her back, waiting for her breath to come back – not likely to happen while she’s laughing so much – before she stands and gives Clavicle what for. Or perhaps goes inside. Or whatever she was planning to do. Instead, she just laughs hysterically, if breathlessly, and waits for something else to happen.

Clavicle Gravely is laying there laughing as well. He finally sits up. “Well then, I don’t think that was wholly called for.”

“What?” Kelly asks when she can finally stop herself from giggling insanely, though she remains lying on the ground with the snow soaking through her robes. One day, she will get the energy to move, but that day is not today. Or, at least, not this minute. “YOU tried to tackle ME, right after I fell out of a TREE.” Try as she might, she can’t sound too pompous while she’s lying breathlessly in the snow trying not to giggle, even when she is talking to a second year student she deems herself automatically better than.

Marie-Anna Greyton is hiding, indeed, first day of school and she’s already hiding in the shadows of Gryffindor commons, and, if you look close enough, you’ll see that she’s also a pleasent shade of Gryffindor scarlet. She matches teh chair she’s seated in in the shadows.

Kelly Pantall all but skips into the Common room, though exactly what it is that has her in such a good mood is entirely uncertain. After all, she hasn’t had enough time to have done anything exciting yet. Then again, perhaps it is merely being back at school – that’s not entirely impossible, after all. “Miss Marie-Anna! Miss Marie-Anna!” Regardless of whether the prefect wants privacy, she’s not going to adhere to that – her conversation is far too interesting.

Marie-Anna Greyton looks up as she hears Kelly’s voice. “Yes, Kelly?” she questions, doing her best to school her appearance so that she’s not a violent shade of red. “Have you alredy gotten into trouble, on the first day?” not that she actually expects this.

Kelly Pantall shakes her head firmly, her limp curls flying, and puts her hands on her hips – her expression is still cheerful, though, and she doesn’t seem remotely annoyed. “Of course I haven’t gotten into trouble! Why would I get into trouble? I just wanted to talk to you and, and, I heard about you and Mister Prefect Sir.” Even after having screamed it out last term at the Date Auction, she’s not comfortable calling him by his first name.

Marie-Anna Greyton quirks. “What about Martin and I? Huh?” wait for it, wait for it… and the light finally turns on and… indeed… she does turn a rather scarlet hue of red, blushing.

Kelly Pantall claps her hands at this, as though there is no greater joy than seeing the prefect blush and, without invitation, perches herself on a seat close to Marie-Anna. “Well, it was pretty hard to miss,” she opines knowingly, nodding slowly. “So, are you two officially sweethearts, now? Or is it just for the sake of the dance? You did hug him.” And, suddenly, hugging is a horrific crime, one which she treats with due suspicion. “I’m thinking about who I will ask to the dance. You know,” now it is her turn to blush faintly, “Rafe DeWitt wrote to me over the summer.”

Marie-Anna Greyton shakes her head. “No, we’re going strictly as friends. I figured that, seeing as Angelina was no longer here, well,” she shrugs her shoulders a little. “And yes, I hugged him, as a friend, in congratulations, of course.”

“Ah, well, in congratulations…” Whatever Kelly is thinking is hidden behind a veil of her trying to look wise, though quite utterly failing. “So, it’s just for the sake of the dance, well. Why are you blushing so much, then?” Because blushing fiercely is suspicious in other people, but there’s nothing wrong with the fact that her own cheeks are still faintly pink.

Marie-Anna Greyton blinks. “Yes, just for the sake of the dance. Truth is is I wouldn’t have anyone else to ask, though I’m sure plenty of others would have asked him, and, I figured if I was going to go, best go with a friend, right, so…” she shrugs. “And I’m not blushing…”

Kelly Pantall seems entirely unconvinced of this fact, peering unflatteringly at Marie-Anna’s face. “You’re either blushing or someone accidentally changed the colour of your face.” This, however, is entirely possible, and she nods slowly. “You should go to the hospital wing and get someone to reverse that. It makes it look like you’re blushing, very ferociously.”

Marie-Anna Greyton blinks. “Neither, Kelly, I swear, I’m not blushing, I’m just…. naturally this shade,” she’s lying through her teeth, it’s not like it’s an unknown fact that Marie has a HUGE crush on the Head Boy.

“No, you’re not.” Kelly replies bluntly, inspecting Marie-Anna carefully. “You’re not usually that colour, you’re a lot paler and less red.” Her own blush has since faded, so at least she’s not looking quite so hypocritical anymore. Especially because of course she would never do something like that which she is accusing Marie-Anna of.

Rawnie Weller comes back up from the girl’s dorms looking a little panicked. “Where is he? Ohhh where is Figaro?” Rawnie runs around the common room looking under couches and cushions…. into bags and boxes. “They said they would bring our pets up to our rooms but I can’t find Figaro!” The little girl squeals.

Marie-Anna Greyton grumbles. “I’ll have you know, I got a tan over the summer,” she states. And, indeed, her appearance has changed since her fifth year. At this point, however, she see’s Rawnie. “They did, if it’s not in your dorm it’s probably gotten into the house.”

Kelly Pantall still doesn’t seem convinced of Marie-Anna’s logic, shaking her head slowly and peering at her all the while. “But tan is sort of brown, not bright red… and you’re not so red now, but you were very red before.” Then, she pauses, and changes the subject completely. “Who should I ask? Hey, you – newly sorted! Who are you going to ask?”

Rawnie Weller frowns and looks around the common room some more. “I don’t see him no place! Where is he? The small girl takes a deep breath and lets out an ear splitting “FIGAROOOOOO!!!! COME OUT!!” But to no avail. “Where is my owl?” She sniffle softly apparently no knowing the Owls stay in the Owlery.

Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles. “You’re owl. He’ll be in the owlery, toads and cats are brought to the commons, owls to the owlery,” she states, nodding, before she ducks her head. She is not blushing, honestly.

Kelly Pantall seems to be getting rather impatient that no one is answering her question, but it seems that a perfectly logical way to do this is to repeat her question, but louder. “Miss Marie-Anna, who should I ask, now you’re going with Mister Prefect Sir?” Because, obviously, asking the Head Boy is the appropriate course of action.

Rawnie Weller sighs hearing that bit of information. The girl plops down onto the nearest couch not bothering to fix the now disheavled mess she has made. She props her mismatched socked feet up on the coffee table. “Oh well thats good. Because Owls should’nt be in the dorms anyway. They make a mess. Figaro dosn’t though hes a clean bird but every other bird would make a mess.”

Marie-Anna Greyton blinks. “Have you considered Rafe? I know you two are good friends, and I’d say go with a friend, that’s what I’m doing, after all,” she points out with a smile. “Indeed, Miss Weller, when you need to go see him you can just go to the owlery, they’re far more comfortable there anyway.”

Kelly Pantall shrugs vaguely, being entirely unable to see fault in this logic, then looks down at her lap with slightly pinked cheeks. “He wrote me a letter.” Yes, she has already said this, and she is going to say it again. “So I suppose I should ask him. It was a very nice letter.”

Rawnie Weller perks up a little guessing the girls must be talking about the dance. “Am I allowed to ask any boy I want? Can I ask a boy to not come to the dance?” Immediatly her mind focuses on Andy. “People who don’t eat meat are likely untrustworthy……” Where she got this idea is anyone’s guess.

Marie-Anna Greyton smiles at Kelly. “I think I should go… uh…. find my formal robes… I do need to figure out what to wear to this event, after all…” Oh, dear, Marie is worrying about clothes?! this can’t be good. “They’re not untrustworthy, Miss Weller, it’s just personal choice, really.” And with that the still furiously blushing prefect heads to her dorm.

Kelly Pantall watches Marie-Anna as she makes her exit, shrugging her shoulders lightly and looking at Rawnie. “I suppose. I’ve never heard stories about not eating meat, but they might be untrustworthy. I’d be more likely not to trust them if they were murderers.” Because that’s a logical progression. She nods firmly, then peers at Rawnie for a moment, and queries, “Should I ask Rafe DeWitt to the dance? He wrote me a letter.”

“Well I bet not eating meat will drive him to become a murderer!” Her eyes shift back and forth. The little redhead has quite an imagionation in her head. “He threatened to feed me to a Giant too! Everyone heard him!” Rawnie blinks a little realizing Kelly asked a question. “Who’s Rafe? Is that your boyfriend or somthin?”

Kelly Pantall gasps, having apparently not considered this before, and nods her fervent agreement. “I’ve never heard of it happening before, but it could happen! You know, I bet you’re right.” Then, a pause, and though she blushes very brightly pink, she shakes her head. “No, he’s not my boyfriend. I don’t have a boyfriend.” She pulls a piece of folded parchment out of her pocket and hands it over. It’s probably the most impersonal letter in the history of teenage boy-girl summer correspondence, but it’s a letter.

Rawnie Weller looks over the letter skimming it quickly because of how…. impersonal and boreing it is. “Wow…. he sounds kind of boreing don’t he?” Handing the letter back to Kelly she scoots up on the couch so that her feet hand off the side not touching the floor anymore. “You better ask somone else. He’d probably fall asleep or somthin.”

Kelly Pantall snatches the letter back with renewed annoyance, shoving it back in her pocket while glaring at Rawnie icily. “He is not boring, and would not fall asleep.” Her voice is waspish, edged with an unprecedented annoyance. “He’s just not a very good letter-writer. This a very above-average letter.”

Rawnie Weller giggles a little and kicks her feet back and forth. “If that’s his above average then I bet his normal letters are about three words long huh? Maybe he dosn’t like ya? I know sometimes boys say they like girls but then they don’t because they just wanna tease ya. Boys are like that and all and well most girls are just dumb enough to fall for it and I think he would fall asleep because if you can’t stay awake long enough to wright a proper letter how can you stay awake long enough ta dance?” Rawnie has to take a deep breath at the end of her statement as usuall because her mouth ran away with her.

Kelly Pantall blushes even brighter pink, fingering the parchment in her pocket with a distinct rustling sound as she glares at Rawnie. “He doesn’t usually write letters. That’s why this letter is so above average. And he’s never actually said he likes me, so therefore he can’t be teasing me!” She sticks her tongue out, ever so maturely, having officially won this argument by her terms. Because, obviously, that’s appropriate logic.

“Yeah but did he say he didn’t like ya?” Rawnie flashes a huge smile at Kelly. “I think ifa boy wrights ter ya during the summer it means he must wan’t ya to think he likes ya. See wot I mean?” Does Rawnie even know what she means? “And you must like him back cause your blushin ya big ninny.”

Briony Wexler comes running down the stairs from the second year girls’ dormitories looking rather dissheveled. “Whimsy! C’mere, kitty, kitty, kitty…” the second year sighs a bit as she looks around the room, scratching her head. Deciding that cats can be tricky (and doesn’t she know it), Briony gets down onto her hands and knees, glancing around underneath various couches and chairs, trying to find the little cat somewhere within her commonroom.

Kelly Pantall bites down on her lower lip, folding her arms across her chest (the letter now in hand rather than her pocket) and trying with all her might not to leap on Rawnie and beat her into the ground. “I asked him to write to me, so he’s not trying to persuade me that he likes me. I think he might like me, but if he does, it’s not some evil ploy. And I’m not a ninny.” This seems to be the worst of Rawnie’s words, and the poor girl is so very near beating on her.

Rawnie Weller scoots a little closer to Kelly giggleing. either she has no idea Kelly is annoyed and is innocent or she knows exactly what she is doing and is egging her on. “Well if hes writing you cause you asked him he obviously wants ya ter think he likes you. Or he really does like you an hes your boreing narca….narca….sleepy boyfriend.”

Felicity Wexler sits quietly on the floor in front of the fire, her knees hugged against her chest as a soft breath escapes her. A hairbrush rests on the soft carpet next to her, apparently forgotten, as she quietly watches the small, flickering flames. Something weighing on her mind more heavily, for once, than her wildly unmanagable bush of golden curls.

“He’s not my boring narca-sleepy boyfriend!” Kelly almost explodes with this news, putting her hands firmly on her hips and crushing the letter in her fist. “You’re – you’re just obsessed with sweetheartness! Not everyone who writes to each other over the summer is sweethearty! I got a letter from a prefect, too, and a girl, and you’re not saying they’re my boyfriends. You’re just jealous because you couldn’t attract any boys to you, because you talk stupid and can’t even pronounce the word narcoleptic!” See, Kelly can pronounce it, and is hence superior.

Crawling backwards, Briony keeps looking for Whimsy, though she is having no luck. How could a grown cat hide so well? Still crawling, the girl isn’t paying attention to who or what she might be bumping into as she is on the quest for her treasured pet. It isn’t long before she’s headed straight for the fire, looking upon seats and underneath tables and couches. Soon the girl comes to a stop as her leg runs into something that strangely isn’t moving. She pushes against it a few times before looking to see what — or who — it could be. “Ugh, Felicity!” Briony groans. “You are in my way.” The girl frowns a bit and sits back on her knees, her arms crossed. “How am I suposed to find Whimsy when you’re in the way?”

Rawnie Weller rolls her eyes with a small smile on her face. “If hes not your boyfriend why are you carrying his letter around in yer pocket? Why are ya gettin all worked up and sweethearty defendin him?” Rawnie obviosly has a point. Obviously….. “And so what I couldn’t pronounce it? Its just a dumb word that means sleepy.”

Kelly Pantall takes a deep breath – as a deep a breath as one possibly can – and closes her eyes for the count of ten. Once calm, she shoots another deathly glare at Rawnie. “It is not. Narcoleptic means he falls asleep all the time for no reason, and sleepy means… sleepy. So you really are stupider than I thought. I bet you were raised by farmer muggles in the middle of nowhere and don’t know anyhing about anything.” She very carefully avoids explaining why she’s carrying his letter around in her pocket. Very carefully.

Felicity Wexler had begun to turn her eyes toward Pantail and the first-year, especially after Kelly’s voice began to lift; but the sudden shock of Briony’s feet in to her back and bum surprises her enough that she gives a smart little squeal and a brilliant little jump. Shift back, her eyes fall on her cousin with a neutral expression at first, if for only just a moment. Even, perhaps, a little sad. But, naturally, that was before Briony went and openned her big, dumb mouth. In a heart beat, a whole day’s worth of quiet hurt and stored up energy burst on to her features all at once. “What? Lost your dumb ol’ cat?” Felicity says, spitefully. Even quite nastily, all things considered. “Good! Probally couldn’t stand you anymore and ran away.”

“My cat is not dumb!” Briony becomes indignant at this comment and frowns hard at her cousin. “You’re so mean. Besides, at least I’m doing something perductive, rather than fussing with my stupid ol’ hair. It’s still bushy anyway. Maybe you should have your precious Gran just chop it all off.” Briony hmphs and scoots past Felicity rather rudely, bumping her intentionally this time as she continues to look for her cat. “Heeeere kitty, kitty, kitty…”

Rawnie Weller glares back at Kelly now rather hard. Its one thing to call her stupider but its entirely another thing to call her hometown nowhere… which it is…. but still. “My pop is not a Muggle farmer hes a Muggler animal Docter! And so what if where I live is small! I get to play in the woods and go fishin any time I wan’t while your swoonin over some lazy bloke what writes poorly!” Thats telling her Rawnie!

“I bet you can’t even read!” Kelly declares in response, screwing up the letter even more in her rage. “That’s – that’s why you think his letter was so poor! You can’t even actually read, so you don’t know what he said.” She will defend this letter to the death. It was such a good letter, she can’t bear for it to be mocked. More importantly… “And besides, I’m not swooning!”

Felicity Wexler doesn’t take that intentional bumping well, as flash of anger blossoms in inside her brilliant enough to demand she retaliates. Turning herself just so that she make the best of an attempt to get her hands on Briony’s hip and side, she gives her least favorite cousin hearty shove. Of course, being the scrawny bean-pole she is, that may or may not mean a lot, but there it is. “You started it! And don’t talk about my gran!”

“I did not start it! You called my cat dumb, so I can talk about your precious Gran!” Briony heaves herself back in Felicity’s direction, shoving the girl back with equal force, if not greater, given the fact that she is a bit pudgy. “You had no right to be calling my cat dumb! What did he ever do to you?” Briony frowns at Felicity and starts crawling away again, under the idea that she is still looking for the creature, though she is now so angry as to be distracted from her actual task.

Rawnie Weller shouts loudly at Kelly “I can read you big stupi…..” but stops mid sentence watching Briony and Felicity start shoving each other. “Hey hey! Stop that yer sisters aren’t ya? I’ll help you find your cat! Don’t fight!” When poor innocent little cat is lost there is no time for fighting!

Kelly Pantall bites on her lower lip a little harder, trying to resist the urge to beat on her when she’s not looking. But of course, she wouldn’t do something like that. Of course. When Rawnie’s not paying attention, the older Gryffindor girl steps forward and kicks her in the leg. “I’m not stupid! And don’t talk bad about Rafe! He’s a good kid!”

Felicity Wexler does practically tumble back as Briony pushes her; it doesn’t take much to knock the tiny wisp of a girl over. Especially when she’d already been sitting in such an awkward position. “I did not start it!” She hisses, her tone a bit warbly; a bit more emotional, and far more angry than one would expect for a few shoves. “YOU bumped in to ME!” Crawling over on her knees as fas as they will carry her, she gives Briony another hard shove. This time; as earnest and might as she can make it, in emphisis to her words. “And YOU didn’t say SORRY, so I CAN call your cat DUMB! DUMBCATDUMBCATDUMBCATDUMBCAT!” It’s almost as if she had just bottled up a whole day’s worth of fight to make sure she could have one spectacularly mad at the end of the day.

“My cat IS NOT DUMB!” The voice escalates as she says this. “Your GRAN is dumb! Did you hear that? DUMB!” Such mature arguments! Briony reaches out and gives Felicity’s hair a good yank, not hearing at all Rawnie’s pleas. “And your hair is dumb, too! And your hairbrush! And your dumb ol’ watch!” Briony yanks her hair again and sticks her tongue out at her cousin. “I can’t believe I’m related to you!” Briony UGHS rather loudly and starts trying to stand up, to go back upstairs. Perhaps Whimsy was in her quarters after all.

“OW!!! You kicked me, Smelly!” Maybe Rawnie meant Kelly or maybe she really did mean Smelly. Whichever it may be the small red head jumps at Kelly flinging her arms and trying to bite whatever part of Kelly she can get in her teeth.

Kelly Pantall grabs Rawnie by the arms and tries to wrestle her down, evading the teeth as best she can, kicking her legs wildly. “Teeth isn’t allowed! Whenever I fight with my brother, teeth isn’t allowed!” This is said at more of a yelp than normal speech, and she reaches up to yank at Rawnie’s hair, pulling her head down at an awkward angle. “Now take back what you said about Rafe!”

Felicity Wexler gives a mighty great squeal as her hair is tugged, her eyes widening in that universal ‘you are so dead’ sort of way. Moving as quickly and deftly as her clumbsy form will allow, she reaches out to snag a fistful Briony’s hair and yanks down on it. It’s almost artful, as if she had practiced just the right moment to use Briony’s upward movement and her own downward thrust for maximum effectiveness.. Kelly and Rawnie are completely lost to Felicity as she unleashes her voice on Briony, accompanied by another hard tug with each and every emphisized word. “Well, your CAT is DUMB, and your MUM is DUMB, and your BOOK is DUMB! And I wouldn’t be related to YOU if I didn’t HAVE to be!” Her hands are actually shaking at this point.

This act causes Briony to literally fall backwards, right atop Felicity, her size being rather formidable in the fall. “YOUR mum is dumb, and my mum isn’t! I have the best mum in the WORLD!” Briony scrambles a bit, trying to get out of the pile of Brilicity that the two girls currently are. She manages to throw a punch at Felicity, as well as a slap to her face. “You have a dumb family! And your mum and dad are OLD, and your Gran is even OLDER! She’s practically dead!” Briony‘s eyes start to fill with tears of anger as she slaps at Felicity again, trying to get a good handful of the blonde’s hair. “Don’t pull my hair, neither! It’s prettier than yours, anyway!”

Rawnie Weller yells as her hair is pull and her legs are kicked. Kelly may be bigger but Rawnie has been in a lot of fights with boys Kelly’s size and Rawnie has short hair making it pretty easy for her to pull herself free with minimle damage. Next she grabs the older girl’s wrist and sinks her teeth in as hard as she may.

Kelly Pantall has had a lot of experience fighting with boys, but most of them quite substantially bigger than Rawnie and so, hence, she is finding the fight rather difficult, and she cries out in pain as her wrist is bitten. Then, as a sort of way to get back at her, she punches Rawnie in the eye.

Felicity Wexler works her best in to the struggle, Briony’s bulk comparitive to her own sufficent enough to knock some of the wind from her, and to leave her more or less an sitting (well, squirming) target for both the punch and the slap. Her breath catches, though, as Briony words reach her. She’d been fighting earnestly up until this point, but even so; somewhere inside, she was restraining. Somewhere inside, no matter how much they fought, Briony was family and she never really wanted to hurt her. But for a moment; one single moment, that changes. Because of one word. When Briony uses the word ‘dead’, something snaps inside of Felicity. And turning under Briony with purpose, borrowing from strength she never knew she had, she brings her hand back and issues a slap aimed at her cousin’s cheek. A real slap. A ‘I’m not playing anymore’ slap. “I HATE YOU!” She screams, tears rolling down her cheeks.. “I HATE YOU, BRIONY!”

“I HATE YOU, TOO, FELICITY!” Briony hollers back, tears starting to stream down her own face. That slap is going to leave a mark. Briony hauls out and slaps Felicity back in the face, grabbing her hair with one hand, tight, and her wrist with the other. “You’re SO MEAN! I can’t believe we’re RELATED!” Briony‘s yells come out more as sobs as the girl is almost crying too hard to feel mean anymore. “I can’t believe you’re so mean.” The twelve-year-old is full-out sobing now, but her grips on Felicity’s wrist and hair do not lighten in any way.

Rawnie Weller reels back from the punch to her little eye making her let go of Kelly’s wrist in a hurry. With her hands over her eyeball she snarles angrily “You stupid ninny! No whonder your boyfriend only wrote you a small letter!” With that Rawnie runs head first into Kelly headbutting her in the stomach full on.

“HE’S NOT MY BOYF – OOF!” As Kelly gets a head to the stomach, her indignancy fades and she all but snarls, scratching at Rawnie with her nails, not taking a moment to recover from being winded. “Stop saying that he is.” When she does speak again, her voice is more of a wheeze.

Melvina Prichard emerges from the portrait hole with a decided look of equal surprise and disgust.. “What on earth is going on in–well, I never!” A deep breath fills the Headmistress as she assumes her most serious, authoritive mask; the same one she mysteriously gifted with the day she gave birth to her daughter, a mother’s white-hot, righteous anger. “LADIES!” She calls, her voice somehow hardly seeming to rise, yet literally booming across the common room. “Control yourselves!” Her tone, unlike the pleasant, somewhat sly amusement she spoke with at the Sorting, is firm, confident, and clearly unhappy. “Now!”

Kelly Pantall scrambles to her feet at once, blushing ferociously, the tattered and wrinkled piece of parchment that once was a letter falling to the ground by her side. “I’m s-sorry, Headmistress. She said my friend wrote bad letters and I shouldn’t go to the dance with him because he’d fall asleep, and I was defending him. Then she bit my wrist.” She profers her hand, bitemark on the wrist included, for inspection.

Felicity Wexler is sobbing as well, her heaving gasps of breath and torrent of tears preventing her from saying or doing much else by try to somehow kick at Briony with her knees and rake up what she can reach of her cousin’s arms with her fingernails. The shocking, authorative boom from Melvina does catch her somewhat off guard, though, and she relents at least partially with her savagery.. but she doesn’t dare forgo the battle until Briony does.

Rawnie Weller rubs her sore eye and whimpers feeling the scratches. is she going to stop just because the HeadMistress is there? Yes…. her father would have kittens if she got kicked out on her first day. Instead she plops onto the floor rubbing her quickly swelling eye and muttering. “Well she called my pop a Muggle Farmer….. and she said I come from nowhere and I can’t read….”

The headmistress’s sudden entrance shocks Briony, but the sobbing girl can do nthing aside from letting go of Felicity’s hair and wrist. She does not endeavor to releas the girl who is still trapped beneath her. “She started it, ma’am,” Briony answers, tears streaming down her face, and a rather red cheek to boot. “Honestly, we didn’t mean–” Hic! “I just wanted–” Hic! “I can’t–” Hic! “My kitty is missing!” The girl wipes her eyes with her sleeve, which doesn’t seem to do much to help, save to smear the tears across her face better.

“She–” Felicity sniffs, choking on a gasp.. Trying to match Briony, not to let her cousin pin the full blame on her shoulders. “My dog died!” She can’t help but feel the impact of the words as she shouts them, though, and all that anger just crumples inside of her as the tears start pouring and gushing. “An.. my gran is–” Choke, hic! “–sick, an’ she said–” Snuffle, wheeze.. “–she was gonna die, too!” Felicity just goes completely limp under Briony, the will to fight gone. Like a pierced balloon.

Melvina Prichard flicks her gaze between Kelly and Rawnie, before rolling her eyes with a great sigh. “Fine, fine, you, dear, sit,” Melvina says, sharply, motioning at Kelly and then pointing at the couch. “And you, dear, over there,” similarly motioning Rawnie to a near, but quite seperate chair. Her gaze shifts them toward the Wexler’s, recognizing thier blood almost immediately, if not thier individual names. “Yes, dear.. We’ll find your kitten, now, please, Miss Wexler, get off of your.. Miss Wexler.” Her eyes soften a bit with Felicity’s story, but not so much that the tightness of her eyes evaporates. Lifting a hand to rub at the bridge of her nose, she moves toward the pair and extends a hand to help Briony up. Not so much offering, but one she expects Briony to take.

Rawnie Weller huffs quite haughtily and moves to sit on the chair like she is told. When the HeadMistress’s attention is on the other girls she sticks her toung out at Kelly and makes a biteing motion to tease her.

Briony Wexler stops short as Felicity says this. Had the girl known that, she might not have said the things she said. Then again, how is Briony to know what she might or might not have done, given the circumstances. “Yes, ma’am,” Briony scrambles up, her head hanging rather low, and her eyes still streaming with tears. The girl does not sit, but she does stand away so that Felicity might stand up. Briony might dislike her cousin very much, but the girl cannot help but feel sorry about the girl’s dog and grandmother.

Melvina Prichard exhales a soft sigh, helping Briony to her feet and giving the girl a rather sad sort of look. That moment was always the hardest when chiding a child; no matter how long her daughter had been grown, she could remember every look of shame as if it happened yesterday. And having toresist the urge to embrace the both of them as Melvina turns to help Felicity up in turn is heartbreaking. “Any injuries, the two of you?”

Rawnie Weller huffs quite haughtily and moves to sit on the chair like she is told. When the HeadMistress’s attention is on the other girls she sticks her toung out at Kelly and makes a biteing motion to tease her.

Felicity Wexler just seems completely limp now that the fight has been drained from her, and it takes her mustering what appears like a considerable amount of energy just to force herself to her feet even with Melvina’s help. But once she’s there, she stands silently, bruised, and scratched, and staring at the ground.

Rawnie Weller looks over at the two bawling girls and remembers that she was trying to stop a fight just before she got pulled into one herself. “Its all Smelly’s fault! If she hadn’t started our fight I coulda helped Briony look for her cat and no one would be fightin.”

Melvina Prichard passes a quizzical look back to Rawnie after giving both Briony and Felicity a good once over; noting that they both seemed to be physically alright, but for some bruises, scratches, a little drop of blood here or there. Nothing that Madam Wexler couldn’t whip up with a flick of her wand. “There’s that, at least.. Pardon?” The first-year’s choice of words confusing her terribly; here she, the Headmistress, had just broken up a fight and this youngling was calling someone ‘Smelly’? “Who on earth is Smelly–No, no, it doesn’t matter,” Melvina decides, before waiting for an answer. “This sort of behavior is absolutely abhorant. We’ve not even turned in for the night and you’ve all four made a shambles of each other. Absolutely unexceptable behavior. Twenty five points from Gryffindor house,” the Headmaster declares, her voice curiously powerful even when her tone was both softer and gentler than it had been only a moment ago. A curious air of no-nonsense, blended with a maternal tenderness. “Each.” The last work spoken with unarguable finality. “Now, come on, we five are going to take a trip to the hospital wing.”

“I’m fine,” Briony claims, rubbing her cheek gently and then snatching her hand away. The girl can’t make herself look at her cousin, nor at the headmistress. Her gaze is focused squarely on the floor. “I’m sorry, headmistress.” Briony‘s apology comes out as little more than a whisper as she stands there, trying to calm herself down, to slow the swelling of tears.

Rawnie Weller seems a bit unphased by the point loss and most likley because she has no idea about the point system at Hogwarts. “Twenty Five what?” A frown comes over her brused little face guessing from Melvina’s tone that it would not be the best time to press her. Instead the little girl becomes quiet.

Felicity Wexler inhales a small gasp at the severity of the punishment, turning her ocean blue eyes up to Melvina with a small whimper. Her sobs have abated some, coming now in small, gurgling hiccups that seem to preclude her from finding an better words than a small squeak to beg her appology. Finally, her head falls again, and she whimpers another small cry.

At the mention of point loss, Briony gasps and finally looks up at Melvina, the horror on her face very apparent. “Oh no, really?” Yes, Briony will definitely be crying herself to sleep tonight. The girl wipes her face with her other arm, though it doesn’t help much, and her tears continue to flow, even more heavily.

“House points, dear,” Melvina replies, glancing back to Rawnie a firm, but not unkind expression. “I’m sure your housemates, and Professor Calwern will be sure to tell you all about them over the next couple days. Now come on, better have you looked at, too.” And with that, Melvina starts ushering the four girls toward the portrait hole.

Rawnie Weller follows after the Headmistress with her little hand still clenched over her black eye. It had been an eventfull first day at school to say the least.

Felicity was fairly certain that Briony wouldn’t be the only one crying herself to sleep; this was shaping up to be her worst first week of term, ever.

Briony Wexler follows the headmistress obediently to the nurse’s office, knowing that she’s about to get into even more time, as it is her mother who is the nurse. The girl says nothing, though, knowing that the damage done is quite enough. A healthy bruise is already beginning to form on her cheek, and the girl has a rather sore rear end from her fall. This certainly is not a good start of the year for Gryffindor.

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.

Glancing up from her gaze out the window, Olivia offers a half-smile. “Hello.” She pauses a moment, unsure of how to respond. “I’m a fourth year this year,” she finally adds, not thinking to add her name. The girl tucks her ankles underneath her gently, leaning on an armrest in a rather lady-like fashion. Her demeanor is not one of coldness, but more of reserve, as if she isn’t sure just how to behave.

Carrying her things with her Rawnie peeks in to the very last compartment and smiles. “Hello…. this place taken?” She walks in setting her things down before waiting for an answer. “My name is Rawnie. This is my first year and everythin….”

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.

Aisling O‘Cormac stumbles clumsily through the door of the compartment, blushing at the older girl’s demurity. “Um, hello.” She offers back. “My name is Aisling O‘Cormac… This will be my first year at Hogwarts, though my brothers have told me wonderful things about it.” Having, she feels, pretty much made a fool of herself, Aisling tugs on one of her two plaits nervously. “I don’t suppose you’d mind me sharing this compartment with you?”

Rawnie Weller takes a seat near the windo looking out at the spot where her mother had stood. It had been the longest time Rawnie has spent with her mother since she was born. Looking over at the new arival Rawnie waves quietly letting the older girl answer.

Albert Bryce pokes his head in from the corridor. “Room for another?” he asks, smiling broadly, his voice brisk, heavy with the London accent. He’s dragging an animal carrier, a broom and a knapsack, blocking the corridor for a couple older students wishing to go by. “Just a minute,” he says to them, unperturbed.

Kassandra Verkooyen swiftly opens the compartment’s dook and heaves her suitcase into the baggage net above the seats. “Kassandra Verkooyen.” she announces, addressing everyone in the compartment. “Likewise, is going to be my first year in Hogwarts. I’m so excited about it. What about you? I cannot wait until the first lesson begins.” She looks around to estimate the others in the compartment.

“Yeah Im excited…. I can’t wait to cut up some frogs!” Rawnie smiles and takes out her potions book opening it to the infamous frog guts page which has a moving illustration on the proper way to gut a frog. “Innit that disgustin?”

As the compartment fills, Olivia readjusts how she is seated to fit many people. Part of her is slightly disappointed that she is surrounded by first years, but as Albert pokes his head in, she is slightly relieved. Someone she knows, “Hello, Albert,” she says calmly. “Good summer?” The girl’s demeanor seems unchanging, though uncertain, and she doesn’t move from her spot save to keep her feet on the floor.

Angelo Grey takes a peek inside to see who’s in the compartment, but seeing it’s already full of people, he decides to leave. No need to pack everyone, there’s plenty of room in other compartments. “Excuse me.”

Aisling O‘Cormac places her luggage in the convenient overhead racks as she begins to survey her new domain. Though the compartment had few people when she entered, it appears to have quickly filled up. “Am I wrong,” she asks, “or are most of us first years?”

Albert Bryce moves in, to the relief of the upper years, and flashes Olivia another smile, a little crooked this time. “Wicked good. Yours?” he asks, reaching up place everything but the animal carrier in the space above. And for a change this year, he doesn’t have to struggle much to reach it. No standing on the seats. The growth spurt finds its purpose! “Hello, all,” he adds to the others as he falls into seat. “First years?” he adds, glancing at his House mate, though the kids seem to be answering that for themselves. “They might not use frogs this year,” he replies to Rawnie. “You never know.”

Rawnie Weller frowns at the prospect of not getting to cut up a dead frog. “Oh but thats false advertisement! This book implys that were going to use frog guts in potions!” Says the dissapointed redhead. Rawnie stares at the picture a bit longer with a smile.

Kassandra Verkooyen wrinkles her nose at the sight of the opened frog. “Ugh, put that away, I don’t want to become sick before we left even left the train station. But, yes, as I have stated before, I am a first year.” replying to Aisling. “What house do you two belong to, if I may ask?” Kassandra questions the fourth years.

Aisling O‘Cormac shakes her head. “I don’t see,” she says to Rawnie, “why you think cutting up a dead frog would be so exciting. They’re somewhat boring, really, just guts and muck. By the way, what was your name again? I don’t think I got it.” The talkative first year stops briefly for breath, then looks towards the older students. “Are you two in the same house? Or even year?”

How should Olivia answer? Tolerable? Rather irritating? Miserable? Perhaps those are exaggerations. “Good,” she answers simply and gives Albert a half smile. “I’m looking forward to this term.” She thinks she is. “Hopefully I’ll be able to get good marks this year.” This is the extent of Olivia‘s forwardness and she mostly sits back and watches the younger students in the cabin enthuse about what the year will be like. The girl remembers her first year, but not the excitement that came with it.

Rawnie Weller grins watching Kass’s face wrinkle up. “Oie whats wrong? Its just frog guts…” The girl brings the book a bit closer to Kass grinning sadeisticly. “I bet you just can’t wait ter touch some huh? They look a bit like green scrambled eggs don’t they?” One might get the feeling that Rawnie does this sort of thing all the time.

Albert Bryce chuckles softly at Weller’s disappointment, but he just shakes his head slightly and leans back, arms crossing over the top of the carrier, from which a disgruntled ‘mew’ can be heard. “Fourth years, Hufflepuff,” he answers Kassandra and Aisling cheerfully. “Best House in the castle.” Olivia gets a quick glance. “Good is… good.” Uh huh. “And at least we don’t have O.W.L.s to worry about yet.”

Dolly Faeden wiggles her way into the compartment and finds a place to hoist her overlarge trunk. The girl is devoid of any kind of pet, but doesn’t seem to notice. Her wand pokes up from the pocket of the trousers she’s got on under a somewhat more feminine, but decidedly overlarge blouse, and finally looks around for a chair.

“You’re right about OWLs. I hear they’re dreadfully hard.” The girl bites her lip anxiously in remembrance of the future ominous tests. “Have you heard how they are? My brother took them last year, but he always exaggerates things. He tried to say he nearly died.” Olivia sighs a bit and hugs her waist, leaning a bit farther back in her seat. “Do you know how they are?”

Aisling O‘Cormac looks out the window and sighs. “The countryside looks much as it does back home, clean and bright… I don’t know how people can even stand to live in a city like London, so big and grimy..” Turning to the older students, she continues, “Hogwarts isn’t anything like that, is it? I don’t think I could stand it if it was.”

Lyre King finally finds a place to settle. Without his mother roughly shoving him around, and telling him where to sit and who to talk to, he had stood in the corridor until the train left. He pokes his head into the compartment for a moment and blurts out “Can I sit in here? The only other compartment with unsorted students has an Ogre in it.”

“Was he clumsy?” Albert asks Olivia, his hazel eyes glittering as he grins. “I don’t know. Seren came away with nine when she took them, and it’s not like she’s a brilliant Ravenclaw or something. Though… she studies a lot.” Here, Al nearly looks glum. Almost. “Passed her N.E.W.T.s, too. But… I guess if you pay attention and… you know. Read a lot.” He just might turn green soon. Oh, a distraction. “Only parts of Lond… well. Much of it might be grimy,” he says to Aisling, “but it has its charms. Mostly by magic, but the royal family doesn’t need to know that, do they?” He then blinks at Lyre, once, stares, then states, “No ogres in here.”

Dolly Faeden looks up at the sound of Lyre’s voice and her eyebrows raise fairly far. “Oh! Yer’e the boy with the short wand!” She pulls hers out and brandishes it, a long, whippy thing made of holly, smiling in a friendly manner. “See? It’s longer.” There’s a waving of it and an incidental shooting of sparks, which harmlessly dissolve against the cieling. “Works well, too.” A look around and she asks in a general way, “What about everyone else’s? I’m trying to figure out how the length of a wand corrolates-” she pronounces this word slowly and importantly, as if it is new to her,”to the owner. I’m tallish, you see, and he’s kind of short, so…”

Kassandra chuckles. “An Ogre? What has he done to you?” and to Dolly “Well, I do not think that the length of a wizard or witch is actually related to his or her wand length.” Kassandra sits back, reveales a paper bag which contains two kinds of sweets and starts munching on a Licorice wand. “Help yourself, I’m getting quite annoyed of those sweets.” she announces.

Aisling O‘Cormac turns to face Lyre and blinks. “An ogre? What? How? That’s somewhat… not comforting… By the by, my name is Aisling. Aisling O‘Cormac. Yours?” Having, in short order, attacked the points that most interested her, Aisling sets down to twirling one of her plaits with her index finger, mulling things over and observing her companions. Looking at a wall, she comments, “I don’t think that height has anything to do with wand length…”

“An Ogre? You mean a real one? On the train?” Rawnie seems more than a tad skepticle and closes her potions book. “That’d be pretty neat though…. I should like to see one once.”

“I don’t know. He told me that the sorting hat would try to eat my head if I wasn’t careful.” The girl sighs and shrugs. “Obviously I realized that wasn’t the case, but it was rather frightening beforehand. He never tells me how things are for real. He’s so mean.” Olivia looks rather cross at this, raising her eyebrows at the discussion of Ogres. “What a frightening idea,” the Hufflepuff expresses, seeming to think it a generally horrific idea.

Lyre fumes for a bit. “I am not short! I’m taller than all the boys my age in my grandfathers estate in india. And I swear, there is a towering beast in compartment four! It has a crooked nose, and cuts and bruises all over his face, and it’s ears are thick, and it’s dressed all in black!”

Kassandra says, “Oh yes, an get your head split, I suppose.” %n tells Rawnie and then asks the older students. “What will the Sorting be like? I only heard about a Talking hat and vague stories. Can you tell me?”"

“Probably just an old Slytherin,” Albert offers, grinning at Lyre. The rest, he lets fly over his head like so much conversation until he blinks at Kassandra. “Well, the hat doesn’t eat your head, obviously. It just… picks your brain.” Ah heh. “Painless, but sometimes embarrassing.

“I wouldn’t get my head split….. Id use you like a sheild you ninny.” Rawnie spits at Kassandra. Honestly who did she think she was stateing her honest opnion like that. “Anyway Im sure I could hide from an Ogre.”

Aisling O‘Cormac, being a first year, is, of course, also interested in the phenomenon of the sorting ceremony. Turning towards the older students, she asks, “Has anyone ever been, I don’t know, turned away? That is, not sorted?”

Dolly Faeden frowns a little bit, “Well, tha’s all well an’ good except you haven’t shown me yeir wands so how canni tell for sure?” She crosses her arms, somewhat upset that her research oppurtunity is going by the wayside in favor of Ogre stories. A moment later, however, she’s turned to face the others better. “A hat? M’da tol’ me it was a dragon.” She looks rather let down. “How’s a hat s’posed to tell us anything?”

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.

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce settles in next to Olivia and grins. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asks in his overly cheerful sort of way.

“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..”

(Hufflepuff) Eliza Marlowe folds her lanky frame into a spot at the Hufflepuff table, sitting sideways on the bench to let her long legs stretch out into the aisle. She raises a hand to give a cheerful, easy wave to the few housemates she has missed on the train. “Hey, Linwood!” she calls to one of her teammates. “Get in any good practice this summer?”

(Hufflepuff) “Oh, Quidditch…” Olivia laments softly as she thinks of her horrible experiences with everything relating to the sport. Olivia doesn’t like to get messy, anyway. The quiet girl glances around the table as her housemates all gather. Every year it always seemed so different to sit at it, especially with the new point of view of being a year older. She tries to smile in a friendly way at those around her, but finds it difficult, as she barely knows them, even though she’s been at school with many of them for three years already.

(Hufflepuff) Katherine Nichols plunks down at the end of the table, near Alexandra and a few other third-years. As she turns to survey the room, something catches her eye at the head table, and Katherine‘s round, cheerful face suddenly drops into an astonished gasp. She rummages through the pockets of her robe, scattering a few quills – real and sugar – and some foil Chocolate Frog wrappers before she comes up with what she was seeking: a Wizard Card. She stares at it, then at the head table, then back. “Oh my goodness,” she gasps. “The new Headmistress. It’s Riley’s gran!”

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce leans against the table and peers at Katherine. “Who is?” he asks, as he hasn’t bothered to even glance at the head table just yet.

(Hufflepuff) “Her!” Katherine nods urgently at Melvina Prichard, her voice hushed to a whisper, as if the new Headmistress could hear her all the way across the room. “That one! Look” She leans over, passing the card across to Albert. “It’s her!”

(Hufflepuff) Alexandra Leong gasps “Really?” she exclaims, twisting herself around to get a better look, as she was listening with dismay to her Quidditch captain. “Wow… that’s. Different. Well, Professors Sedgewick is still here… AND Professor Isolde?”

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce rudely reaches across the student between Katherine and him and peers at the card, blinks slowly, then frowns at Melvina. “What on earth is she doing in that chair?” he asks stupidly, as if it hadn’t been announced that the previous Headmistress was stepping down.

(Hufflepuff) “I don’t think she looks quite so nice as the last headmistress we had,” Olivia states quietly, glancing at the woman, almost fearfully. “What’s she like, do you know?” Her gaze scans the table, as she sees all the new appointments, wondering just how different her classes will end up being.

(Hufflepuff) “She’s the new Headmistress!” Katherine whispers urgently. She follows the others’ gaze back up to the faculty table, and now that the first shock of recognition is passing, Katherine regards the new Headmistress with rising apprehension. “No, she doesn’t look very nice at all,” she agrees uneasily. “And from what Riley’s said, I think she’s fairly strict. But…you never know. She might turn out all right.” Hope springs eternal, for Katherine.

(Hufflepuff) “Yeah, Professor Morgan’s parents finally died off while she was gone,” Albert supplies as he sits back once more. “But… well. D’you think the new headmistress will make us take those idiotic seminars on tying shoes?”

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood is sitting at the table, arms up and folded behind his head, waiting rather impatiently for the first years to arrive. He’s not joining in on any conversation yet, however.

(Hufflepuff) “Albert!” Katherine frowns reproachfully at the older boy’s comments, and reaches across to snatch the card back from him. “I’m glad that Professor Morgan is back!” She drops the card on the table in front of her and reaches into her pocket, fishing out a few more Chocolate Frogs.

(Hufflepuff) Albert shrugs at Katherine and grins. “What? It’s true. And I was just wondering.” Then, feeling confident the faculty issue is taken care of for the time being, he turns toward Eliza, staring a moment too long as he screws up some idiotic burst of courage. “So, uh… Eliz, or, that is, Ms. Marlowe?” he calls over, remembering to tack on a smile. “Are you, uh… I was talking to my sister, and… will there be tryouts this year?” he asks her, sounding hopeful as the smile turns more genuine.

(Hufflepuff) Camdin Tulloche finally chimes in from the second year side of Katherine, “Don’t go so hard on Albert. Those seminars were boooring,” he says with only the best exaggeration. “Besides, you really want to take them on top of a slew of electives?”

(Hufflepuff) “No, it’s not Miss Marlowe,” Eliza calls back with a grin. “Just Eliza.” She angles herself towards Albert, leaning one elbow casually on the long table. “And yes, we’ll be having tryouts. Always room for more good players. Seren said that you’d be interested. Looking forward to seeing what you can do.”

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce actually blushes for a moment before he remembers to acknowledge the information with a, “Thanks, Eliza!” Whew! He sits up a little straighter and just smiles widely at those nearby, looking like a very large idiot.

(Hufflepuff) “They weren’t that bad,” Olivia contributes. “At least they were useful and informative. After all, I imagine there were less… shoe-related injuries… during the year…” Olivia‘s voice trails off as she stops her train of thought before she gets any glares from her housemates. “Anyway, I imagine this Headmistress will find some way to enrich our educations.” Olivia is spewing nonsense, and she knows it, so instead of continuing, the girl falls silent and just gazes over the tableware.

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.

(Hufflepuff) “Well, at least they didn’t make Calwern Headmistress,” Albert replies. “The board isn’t completely made up of idiots. Always encouraging, yes? Though… Rathe is still here, I see.” A glum note enters his voice, though it is quickly erased by the entrance of Professor Walsh. “Oh, thank heavens. We can eat soon.” The stomach is most important tonight.

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.”

(Hufflepuff) “Albert!” The reproach is even stronger in Katherine‘s voice, and she puffs up with indignance at his criticism of Professor Calwern. She hastily falls silent, though, when the other professors enter.

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.

(Hufflepuff) Alexandra Leong makes a sound surprisingly like a grunt. “I don’t know why people don’t like Professor Rathe,” she asserts. “I think she’s great. Really fair.” Alright, so the DADA Professor stood up for her, once or twice. That sort of thing sticks in a girl’s mind, doesn’t it?

(Hufflepuff) Albert, unfortunately, has very little luck with most of the professors and is therefore biased. “At least Walsh didn’t drown this year. I heard some of the Slytherins were going to try to sabotage the boats.” Total hearsay, of course.

(Hufflepuff) Casper Hadley shakes his head. “It wouldn’t be the slytherins that sabotaged her. She likes slytherins. Used to be one.”

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.”

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce shrugs slightly, attention mostly on the firsties now. “S’just what I heard,” he maintains, distractedly.

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.”

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.

(Hufflepuff) Olivia Baxtor gasps a bit, as she hear the hat what it has done three times in her presence already. The hat is singing! This never ceases to shock and fascinate Olivia.

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.

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

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!”

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.

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.

(Hufflepuff) Olivia Baxtor applauds as a student is sorted into Hufflepuff. “Welcome,” Olivia states mildly, her greeting lost in all the cheering that engulfs the table as the hat announces Hufflepuff as the destination.

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

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.

(Hufflepuff) “Grey! Welcome!” Eliza Marlowe, a very tall, lanky seventh-year girl, gives the new student an easy wave and a broad smile.

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce laughs softly and sits up tall to wave to Angelo. “No eating heads, see?” he calls down the table, winking quickly before he settles down into his chair again.

(Hufflepuff) Angelo Greychuckles as he is welcomed to the hufflepuff table. His nervousnes now fading a little, he watches the rest of eh sorting. “Thanks.” He seems very pleased, indeed!

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.

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.

(Hufflepuff) Aisling O‘Cormac waves to her fellow first year. “Hullo.” she mutters to Angelo, as she settles herself down.

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

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.

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.

“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.

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce randomly adds another short burst of applause before clutching his stomach dramatically. “I’m going to turn inside out soon,” he announces before blowing out his cheeks. ADD spaz.

“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.

(Hufflepuff) Baldwin Turner , having been sat down for a few minutes, starts to occupy himself by nervously biting his nails until a point when all this sorting has finished and he can, he assumes, go to sleep.

(Hufflepuff) Frowning, Rafe stares at the sorting hat. Hufflepuff. It had put him in Hufflepuff four years ago. Or was it three? Well this would be the third anniversary. With a sigh he watches as the number of first years at the table increases. “Children,” he mutters.

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!”

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

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 calls, her voice filling the hall at a surprisingly comfortable volume. She pauses a moment to allow the hall to calm before tapping her wand again to her throat and restoring her normal speaking voice. One that is quiet pleasant, and fully reflective of the warm smile that graces her lips as she looks out over her young audience. “Welcome, everyone, to Hogwarts term for year nineteen hundred and twenty six! My name is Melvina Prichard and I have had great fortune of being appointed new Headmistress of Hogwarts school. I look forward knowing each of you as time passes. Moving on then, I’ve some beginning of term announcements to make.” Pulling a pair of spectacles from a pocket of her emerald robes and resting them on the bridge of her nose, the Headmistress lifts up a tightly-bound scroll which had she’d not appeared to be holding a moment before.

“The standard boilerplate, of course. Our caretaker has asked me to remind you check the updated list of prohibited items and punishable offenses that have been thoughtfully posted in each of your common rooms–” Drawing in a deep breath, the Headmistress begins to unroll the wound parchment, “Spellwork outside of the classroom, rough play, pranks, hijinxs, dungbombs, Whipple’s Pimple Powder..” Her brow furrows for a moment and the bottom of the scroll slips through her fingers, clattering to the table, spilling over the edge, and rolling across the floor until exhausting itself about half-way across the Great Hall. Her eyes widenning slightly, Melvina sets her end of the very long list down and vanishes it with a flick of her wand. “The list goes on. Be sure to check it.”

After quiet resumes, Melvina takes up a blessedly smaller sheet of parchment. “Hogwarts tradition demands that I remind you the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students; it’s equally tradition that some of you will choose to ignore this reminder.” 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 along side you, and that such acts will almost always result in a major loss of house points as well.” With small glance around and a pause to clear her throat, Melvina continues. “Naturally, we ask that you respect and defer to your Prefects. Also, I’d like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Head Girl, Martin Foster and Eliza Marlowe. Mister Foster and Miss Marlowe, please stand.” She claps once the two have risen, leading those who care to join her in a modest round of applause, before continuing on.

“Very good, Head Boy, Head Girl. On to faculty. I have the pleasure of introducing several new faculty members to you, and to announce the return of a few others. Heading up our Wizo-Music classes will be international wizo-musician Darius Dwight. Great honor, there. Filling our other vacancies will be, for Astronomy, Mister Avery Fallon, Care of Magical Creatures, Mister Quintus Helit, and last but hardly least, Divination, a one Miss Bonnie Kensington. Also, returning from hiatus, Professors Isolde Morgan and Dante Hayward shall be resuming their posts as masters of Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, respectively. Ravenclaws will note that along with reclaiming her Arithmancy classroom, Professor Morgan is also be resuming her duties as Ravenclaw Head of House. Similarly, Hufflepuffs will be interested to know that Professor Sedgewick has been officially named your Head of House Hufflepuff for the coming year.” Melvina waits one last time for applause before plowing on.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood claps rather enthusiastically at the announcement of Head Boy and Girl, calling, “Well done, Captain!” in the brief interval of noise between segments of speech.

One large, deep, relieved breath and Melvina finally sets down the parchment and removes her glasses, slipping them back in to the pocket where she found them. “That said, I have only one more thing to mention before we start in on the delicious feast I know you’re all patiently waiting to savor. Seeing that we have so many new faces gracing us this year, in the spirit of celebration and greeting, I’ve decided to hold a small function. A barefoot social. This dance will semi-formal, open to all students of all years, faculty, and staff, and will include music, naturally, and an outdoor feast.” Her smile warms in to something almost sly, however, as she looks out at her young crowd. “But what social would be complete without courtship? So, for fun, I’ve decided to make this dance a bit unusual; our ladies will need ask our gentlemen for the honor of an afternoon’s companionship.” She waits, pleasantly, for the reaction to that before at last finishing up.

(Hufflepuff) Baldwin Turner claps slowly, not entirely sure what most of those announcements mean.

(Hufflepuff) Albert says, “I feel sorry for whomever Kelly ends up asking.”

(Hufflepuff) Aisling O‘Cormac blinks. “She has to be kidding, right? And who’s Kelly?”

“I’d like to form an events council, made up of students from all years, to help me prepare; 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. Once your bellies are full and you gossip abated, please follow your Prefects to your respective common rooms, and have a wonderful school year. Let us eat.” And with small nod and a sly, lingering grin, Melvina slips casually back in to her seat.

(Hufflepuff) Olivia Baxtor gasps in horror as the new headmistress makes this announcement about the dance. The girl is shocked to hear this news in the least, but keeps her comments to herself as the woman continues speaking.

(Hufflepuff) Turning to Albert, Aisling once more asks, “Who is this Kelly girl? And what’s wrong with her?”

(Hufflepuff) “Kelly’s an amazing young woman,” Rafe scoffs at Albert. “She’s fascinating, too. Not boring like some. Or stupid like others. She’s neither afraid to speak her mind nor is she too brash to cause continual damage to herself.” He shoots Albert a glare and looks at his food.

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce winks at his fellow fourth year, then grins at Aisling. “Don’t let him fool you. She’s not just off her rocker, she’s broken the poor thing.” He reaches over to grab a couple bread rolls and begins slathering butter onto them. “Eliza! Congratulations!” he remembers to add. All in a day’s work.

(Hufflepuff) Aisling O‘Cormac blinks. “Sooooo…. A girl that Rafe likes? She sounds rather extraordinary.”

(Hufflepuff) Baldwin Turner blinks, “Isn’t girls asking boys a bit… bit…” He shudders. “B-b-bit unusual?”

(Hufflepuff) Eyeing Aisling, Rafe just shakes his head, “Don’t amuse yourself by spreading idle gossip. Kelly is fascinating. She’s a muse to me, if you will. A mascot, perhaps.” Just what every girl wants: to be equated to a mascot. “Unusual as it may be, it certainly takes the pressure off. I don’t plan on being asked. Dancing is. . .a complete waste of time.”

(Hufflepuff) Warrick Stopps squints, apperantly thinking. “…A bit,” he eventually agrees with Baldwin, piing up to be heard for the first time. “…A mascot?” Confusion abounds.

(Hufflepuff) Aisling O‘Cormac turns to Baldwin. “I think that was the headmistress’ point, having a Sadie Hawkins’.” she says, and then turns back to Rafe. “How exactly do you plan on avoiding having someone ask you, Rafe? There’s that whole free will thing.”

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood actually lets out a sigh of relief when the mode of asking is announced. “Thanfully I won’t have to go. Good to know–Why, DeWitt,” he latches on to the conversation at long last, “sounds as if you fancy her.” Hopefully certain rumors will not decide to surface. “Although I have to agree. Strange, yes, but Kate is rather interesting and has a good deal more character than some girls.” He blushes, suddenly, and adds, “But she is strange.”

(Hufflepuff) “Well, this is Hogwarts,” Albert answers Baldwin, grinning. Rolls buttered, he adds some potatoes (with butter), roast beef (more butter), and some thick gravy. (Yes, butter.) “And hey, if it means Kelly’s asking you, Rafe, and not one of us, I’m already happier!” Munch.

(Hufflepuff) Baldwin Turner ponders on this, “Why… I mean, uh, why can’t you… or don’t you… Why not just,” His next three words are said very carefully, almost like he could be totally stupid for saying them. “M-magic yourselves better?”

(Hufflepuff) About to begin munching on a buttered roll, Aisling stops, and turns to Charlie. “Did you say Kate? I thought her name was Kelly?”

(Hufflepuff) Casper Hadley disagrees. “I had to go to my cou.. well, I guess I’m barely related to him. I had to go to Ivy Thornwelds brother’s wedding last christmas. The entire event was horrible, but the dancing was the most fun I’d had all year.” The sight of Casper dancing must have been incredibly humorous. “No, you can’t magic yourself better. You have to learn. The best way to do that is to try.”

(Hufflepuff) “Fancy her?” Rafe nearly chokes on his pumpkin juice at the mere notion. “Surely you joke. I fancy no one. You, on the other hand, Charlie, I heard a rather fascinating rumour about you and Kelly. . . although it’s not in my nature to pass news along.” He narrows his eyes and then sideglances Albert, “No one’s asking me. End of story. No, if I avoid all pleasant contact with female students, no one will ask me.”

(Hufflepuff) “Couldn’t have said it better,” Albert agrees with Casper, gesturing emphatically with half a cup of pumpkin juice, which is quickly drained. “That’s easy, Rafe. Just tell the girls you’re going to the dance with Martin Foster.”

(Hufflepuff) Baldwin Turner nods, “Right, right… I’m sorry.”

(Hufflepuff) Aisling O‘Cormac stops a moment. “Isn’t that the name of the Head Boy?” she asks, putting her cutlery to rest on her plate as she looks over the desserts.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood turns a sort of purply hue and says, “She said call her Kate and she is my friend, and only sort of!” Whether this is true or not, Charlie won’t ever let on. He gets progressively crosser and adds, “I couldn’t ever fancy her, anyway. So don’t so much like you do–” Albert’s comment brings up another blush and he says, “He can’t go with Martin, Martin is another boy.” Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much. A mutter of something indistinct and then, “I’m going to eat now.”

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce is trying very, very hard not to laugh. At least… not a lot. And very loudly. Finally, the fourth year on the other side of Al elbows him extremely hard in the ribs. “Ow! Hey, what was,” and there’s another jab in the same spot. “Oh. Hey, sorry, Rafe.” And the overly talkative one is silenced with food. And elbow jabs to the ribs.

(Hufflepuff) “Foster?! Believe me, the girls will swoon over Foster. He and Morris went for something like 36 galleons each at the Slytherin Quidditch Auction. . . which I believe Kelly contributed to? Sorry, Charlie. Her heart goes to a much older man. . .” Rafe scowls at Albert and just shakes his head, “You’re walking on thin ice, Albert. THIN ice.”

(Hufflepuff) Aisling O‘Cormac tilts her head to one side. “Maybe that’s why he thinks you should get in first, Rafe. To beat all the swooning girls to Martin. Although, if the girls have to ask the boys, then a boy couldn’t go with a boy. Because who would do the asking? That’s ever so complicated. Hey Rafe?”

(Hufflepuff) Albert Bryce finishes off the majority of his meal in record time, then butters a couple more rolls before wrapping them in a napkin. “I’m going to head up, I think. See you guys there,” he tells the others. “Sorry, Rafe. I’ll drop it. And 36 Galleons? Those girls have more money than brains, I think.” So much for that.

(Hufflepuff) Charlie Linwood makes a face into his neatly segregated mashed potatos and then looks up, carefully masking his irritation and outburst with humor. “Well, better have a conversation with her about which of you gets to ask him then, shouldn’t you?” The pink tint doesn’t leave his ears and the comment comes out rather strained, but it’s out and no taking it back.

Marie-Anna Greyton quietly stands from Gryffindor table and makes her way across the hall to Slytherin table. Indeed, nothing to out of the ordinary, until she walks up to stand behind the Head Boy and proceeds to give Martin a big hug, despite the fact that he is sitting. “Congratulations on making Head Boy Martin.”

(Hufflepuff) As Marie stands, Rafe smirks, “See, it’s already begun. I’m glad I’m not Head Boy. Or prefect. Or anything.” He returns to his dinner and silences.

(Hufflepuff) Angelo Grey eats away, minding his own business. However, there’s something that’s nagging his mind, and he breaks silence. “What are the duties of a prefect? And a headboy or girl?”

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 calls, her voice filling the hall at a surprisingly comfortable volume. She pauses a moment to allow the hall to calm before tapping her wand again to her throat and restoring her normal speaking voice. One that is quiet pleasant, and fully reflective of the warm smile that graces her lips as she looks out over her young audience. “Welcome, everyone, to Hogwarts term for year nineteen hundred and twenty six! My name is Melvina Prichard and I have had great fortune of being appointed new Headmistress of Hogwarts school. I look forward knowing each of you as time passes. Moving on then, I’ve some beginning of term announcements to make.” Pulling a pair of spectacles from a pocket of her emerald robes and resting them on the bridge of her nose, the Headmistress lifts up a tightly-bound scroll which had she’d not appeared to be holding a moment before.

“The standard boilerplate, of course. Our caretaker has asked me to remind you check the updated list of prohibited items and punishable offenses that have been thoughtfully posted in each of your common rooms–” Drawing in a deep breath, the Headmistress begins to unroll the wound parchment, “Spellwork outside of the classroom, rough play, pranks, hijinxs, dungbombs, Whipple’s Pimple Powder..” Her brow furrows for a moment and the bottom of the scroll slips through her fingers, clattering to the table, spilling over the edge, and rolling across the floor until exhausting itself about half-way across the Great Hall. Her eyes widenning slightly, Melvina sets her end of the very long list down and vanishes it with a flick of her wand. “The list goes on. Be sure to check it.”

After quiet resumes, Melvina takes up a blessedly smaller sheet of parchment. “Hogwarts tradition demands that I remind you the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students; it’s equally tradition that some of you will choose to ignore this reminder.” 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 along side you, and that such acts will almost always result in a major loss of house points as well.” With small glance around and a pause to clear her throat, Melvina continues. “Naturally, we ask that you respect and defer to your Prefects. Also, I’d like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Head Girl, Martin Foster and Eliza Marlowe. Mister Foster and Miss Marlowe, please stand.” She claps once the two have risen, leading those who care to join her in a modest round of applause, before continuing on.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton listens intently for the HG and HB, and, upon hearing that it is, indeed, Martin, just as she suspected, Marie lets out a rather loud whoop, before blushing. “Oops….”

“Very good, Head Boy, Head Girl. On to faculty. I have the pleasure of introducing several new faculty members to you, and to announce the return of a few others. Heading up our Wizo-Music classes will be international wizo-musician Darius Dwight. Great honor, there. Filling our other vacancies will be, for Astronomy, Mister Avery Fallon, Care of Magical Creatures, Mister Quintus Helit, and last but hardly least, Divination, a one Miss Bonnie Kensington. Also, returning from hiatus, Professors Isolde Morgan and Dante Hayward shall be resuming their posts as masters of Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, respectively. Ravenclaws will note that along with reclaiming her Arithmancy classroom, Professor Morgan is also be resuming her duties as Ravenclaw Head of House. Similarly, Hufflepuffs will be interested to know that Professor Sedgewick has been officially named your Head of House Hufflepuff for the coming year.” Melvina waits one last time for applause before plowing on.

(Gryffindor) As Andy Carver notices that Eliza has been chosen to be the new Head Girl he applauds loudly.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton also applauds for Eliza, of course.

One large, deep, relieved breath and Melvina finally sets down the parchment and removes her glasses, slipping them back in to the pocket where she found them. “That said, I have only one more thing to mention before we start in on the delicious feast I know you’re all patiently waiting to savor. Seeing that we have so many new faces gracing us this year, in the spirit of celebration and greeting, I’ve decided to hold a small function. A barefoot social. This dance will semi-formal, open to all students of all years, faculty, and staff, and will include music, naturally, and an outdoor feast.” Her smile warms in to something almost sly, however, as she looks out at her young crowd. “But what social would be complete without courtship? So, for fun, I’ve decided to make this dance a bit unusual; our ladies will need ask our gentlemen for the honor of an afternoon’s companionship.” She waits, pleasantly, for the reaction to that before at last finishing up.

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller cheers as well though she isn’t exactly sure why or for whom. “Whats a Head Boy and Girl anyway? Are they some kind of heads with legs or somthing?”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton is still a rather ferocious shade of red at the next announcment, which causes her to become an even brighter shade of red.

“I’d like to form an events council, made up of students from all years, to help me prepare; 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. Once your bellies are full and you gossip abated, please follow your Prefects to your respective common rooms, and have a wonderful school year. Let us eat.” And with small nod and a sly, lingering grin, Melvina slips casually back in to her seat.

(Gryffindor) “What…? Another dance? And the girls are going to invite the boys? Ugh…” Andy turns pale.

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller giggles softly to herself and begins shovling food onto her plate greedily. It dosn’t take long for her to have a sizable mound of food and she begins to very ravimously eat away at it. Her appetite seems as boundless as her talking and for such a small girl!

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton quietly stands so that the first years can see you. “As the Headmistress noted, when you are don eating you may follow, Miss Keegan, Mister Gumphrey,” she grins at the two quidditch players, “Mister Hughes, Miss Harper, Mister Wells or myself,” is given in a tone loud enough for her fellow housemates to hear, though her cheeks are rather crimson. “I would like to officially welcome all of the first years to Gryffindor, congratulations and welcome to Hogwarts and the house. This will be your family for the next seven years,” she smiles, “Now, enjoy the feast!” and with that she sits, and casts a quiet glance towards Slytherin table.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver applauds and cheers as Marie-Anna finished her short speech hoping that the others are joining in.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton smiles towards Andy. “My speeches are short, what can I say, I’m as famished as you are,” a laugh is given. Actually, chances are she’d rather be hiding her head in a paper bag or something right now.

(Gryffindor) The food appears before Briony, and as she is now ravenous, the second year digs in enthusiastically. “Oh, I love feasts,” she sighs with her mouth half-full, leaning back a bit from the table to enjoy the large bite she has just taken.

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller dosn’t even bother to speak untill she has worked her way through half of her mountain of food and then its only to point to a plate of chicken she cannot reach, with a look to Briony she asks. “Could yer pass tha chicken?”

(Gryffindor) Briony has only just finished her bite of food when she hears someone asking for something at her side. Oh, it’s that chatty first year. Without question or comment, Briony passes a platter of chicken over to the younger girl, digging into a rather rich-looking pudding.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton takes a rather furtive bite of the food. Indeed, it’s good, but the look in Marie’s face is evident to the fact that she’s deep in thought.

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver frowns at Rawnie as she mentions the chicken and piles up carrots, beans, salad and potatoes onto his plate. Then he pours some sauce over it and begins to munch. “Are you all going to try out for the quidditch team?”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton peers at Quidditch comes up. “Oh! Please do, indeed. Everyone second year or above will be quite welcome. Albeit, we haven’t had anyone graduate out, but, we can still see if there’s talent. And we do still have the junior squad, of course!”

(Gryffindor) A mention of Quidditch gets Briony‘s full attention and she glances over to Andy. “I can’t wait! I’ve been waiting to play Quidditch for ever so long!” The girl giggles and swallows another mouthful of pudding. “Mum and dad bought me a brand new broom this year! I’ll show it to you tomorrow if I’m able.” Bri seems to be beaming at this.

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller smiles and takes a few peices of chicken and washes her food down with a bit of pumpkin juice. “Oh but this stuff is good! Blimey!” She looks over at Andy a little confused. “Why are ya jes eatin rabbit food? Doncha wan’t any meat? … Whats Quidditch?”

(Gryffindor) “Quidditch is a sport, done on brooms, you know. You’ll see that later.” Andy shortly replies to Rawnie. “And what’s wrong with my food? I don’t like meat, you know. I just like animals a lot more when they are still alive.”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton smiles at Rawnie. “You’re welcome to come and watch try-outs, of course,” she states. “All Gryffindors are welcome, and, again, you’re welcome to join the junior squad.”

(Gryffindor) “Indeed you should join! The junior squad was such fun!” Briony beams as she thinks of Quidditch. Finally, it’s her chance! Briony takes several spoonfuls of potatoes and corn all at once, and her mouth becomes rather full, impeding her speech, and preventing her from waxing poetic any further over the sport.

(Gryffindor) Rawnie Weller rolls her eyes and shoves a bit of chicken into her mouth tauntingly before saying “I love animals too, me pop is a Veterinarian yer know. But even he eats meat! And guess what…. animals eat each other!” She says this last part in mock shock. A highly opinionated girl this one.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton chuckles. “I’m glad you enjoyed it, Briony, it was such a success next year that I’m very happy to have it again this year, and, if the success continues it’ll be next year as well, and hopefully the next captain will keep it going, I’d hate to see it die out,” she sighs a little. “It’s really a good way to help develop good players.”

(Gryffindor) “Maybe, but I am no animal and I don’t eat humans either.” Andy states, trying to put and end to this conversation, bending over his plate again. But then he lifts up his face again. “Would you like it, when a giant would pick you up by the feet, cook you and gulp you down?”

(Gryffindor) “Prolly not…. but Im sure the Giant would like it a lot. Thats a bit of a stupid question inn’t it?” Rawnie pushes more food into her small mouth and finally relents to the topic of Quidditch. “So what do yer do in Quidditch then? Is it one of those games where you hit a ball over a net? Those are bloody boreing. My pop likes to play that game…. dreadfull game tennis. I once tried it and I got so bored I threw that paddle thingy into the woods and…..” Once again she finds much of the table stareing at her.

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton shakes her head. “Nope, there’s seven players on a team, a keeper, a seeker, three chasers and two beaters,” she beams at this. “The chasers are supposed to catch the quaffle and get it into one of the three hoops that teh keeper guards, the beaters have bats and bludgers, and they’re supposed to hit the bludgers and try to stop the chasers from getting goals, and to keep teh seeker from catching teh snitch…”

(Gryffindor) Andy Carver gives it up to discuss a vegetarian’s philosophy with a psyched first year. “See, I never heard of temmis, or how it’s called…” and completing Marie-Anna “A quaffle goal counts 10 points and when the snitch is caught, the seeker’s team get 150 points and usually wins the game. It mainly about having an adept seeker and good beaters to protect him. Once you have the snitch, it’s usually over.”

(Gryffindor) Marie-Anna Greyton quietly looks around at the table. “You’ll have to excuse me for a moment, I have to go catch up with an aquaintance,” is offered before she stands.

Marie-Anna Greyton quietly stands from Gryffindor table and makes her way across the hall to Slytherin table. Indeed, nothing to out of the ordinary, until she walks up to stand behind the Head Boy and proceeds to give Martin a big hug, despite the fact that he is sitting. “Congratulations on making Head Boy Martin.”

(Gryffindor) As Andy Carver finished his meal he peers over to Felicity and asks her. “I’ll go and head for our Common Room.”

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler nods, quietly; so very quiet, compared to her usual bundle of energy and shrill. “I’ll come with you.”

It is with great nostalgia that Bonnie Kensington makes her way onto the train. She had decided in the past to take the train to Hogwarts out of sheer curiosity, and she is finding it exactly the same as it was when she took it… well, many years past. The woman takes a seat near the window, facing forward, so as not to become ill. Her large Divination volume sits at her side and she appears to have a makeshift table ready to make more notes on several lengths of parchment. How better to pass a trip than to work, right?

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 door to the compartment opens, and Sibyl Wexler bustles in, calling one last, “Behave, Briony-love! I’ll see you at Hogwarts!” behind her as she enters. The nurse has evidently stowed her lugggage somewhere else – all she carries is a tapestry carpetbag, clinking with potion bottles and with knitting needles and yarn sticking out the top. “Oh – good morning! I suppose I have found the professors’ cabin, then,” she says, with a cheerful grin at the compartment’s other occupant. “I heard that we were getting a few new ones this year. I’m Sibyl Wexler, the Hogwarts nurse.” She takes a seat opposite the other woman, facing backwards, and starts rummaging around in her bag to extricate her needles and yarn, a bright tangle of red.

Isolde Morgan quietly enters the compartment after taking a quick peek inside. “Ms. Kensington,” she says with a friendly smile as she invites herself in and begins placing things in the luggage bins above. As the nurse enters, Isolde nods to her in greeting and takes a seat. “Ms. Wexler, this is the new Divination professor, Bonnie Kensington,” Isolde offers by way of introduction. She may as well be useful. “It’s so good to see all these students again.”

Smiling widely, the massive frame of Darius Dwight enters the compartment shortly after Sibyl. “We may need a second one,” he opines cheerfully as the compartment proves, as always, just big enough for as many people as it’s holding. “Good morning, everyone. How are you?”

Karina Sedgewick opens the door to the compartment, to find it filled with her colleagues, and a few people she doesn’t not recognize. “Good morning!” She smiles at the assembled adults. “I see I’m not the only who thought of taking the train. May I?” She is holding an empty looking leather bag, squarish and not too fashionable, more like a sachel than anything.

Clavicle Gravely Oh.. er, My pardon. I didn’t realize this car was full.” he grins politely. “If you would excuse me… ” he smiles, “Unless there is some sort of extra room about?”

“Hello,” Bonnie greets those who join her with a nod of her head. “Nice to see you again, Ms Morgan,” Bonnie smiles in a friendly fashion to the Arithmancy teacher. “And hello, Sibyl. Hopefully I won’t have to see you all that often this year.” Bonnie‘s eyes smile with mischeif, and she pauses a moment. “Say, Wexler, did you say? Have you any relation to the writers for the Daily Prophet?” The woman looks thoughtful as she considers this.

Isolde Morgan waves in greeting to Karina, then laughs softly. “I just didn’t feel like putting up with another Floo trip, or getting twisted around to apparate to Hogsmeade,” she offers as explanation. “Besides… I always loved this train.” Then Clavicle also gets a quick nod. “It might get awfully dull in here, young man,” she tells him, eyes twinkling, obviously not entirely serious.

“Oh! Well, then, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Professor Kensington. Oh, and do come in, Professor Sedgewick! Professor Morgan! It’s good to see you.” Sibyl, in one of the backwards-facing seats across from Bonnie, is busily working away at untangling her knitting, but she greets everyone in turn with equal friendliness and good cheer, not missing a beat even with the ever-increasing number of occupants. “Oh! Why, yes I am,” she says to Bonnie, with another smile. “Basil is my husband, and Frederick is his brother. And – oh my.” Sibyl has just caught sight of Darius, and something has finally stemmed the stream of cheerful chatter. Her ruddy, sunburned cheeks flush a little pinker, and she lets out what might almost be called a girlish giggle. “Darius Dwight? I didn’t think you would be found on this train.”

Clavicle Gravely grew like a sprout over the summer, He’s far too thin. But the skeltal thin which makes his bowing deep an almost comical parody of the action. “I fail to see how so many learned presences could ever bore a man. But I do feel I am putting upon your hospitality, and if I were to leave, you’d be far more able to enjoy your ride.” he grins a bit. “As I would merely bopre you to tears with questions about our summer readings.” He nods, “I’ve so many brimming about in these here bones.” Clavicle is definately taking after his father. The rakishly thin boy smiles. “If you would pardon me? And excuse my rudeness for failing to knock.”

Darius Dwight smiles, and mimes the action of sweeping a hat from his head at Sibyl’s patter, “Guilty as charged, madam.” He winks, and makes some room for the skinny young boy, “And who might you be, young master?” He smiles and offers a wink to Clavicle. “Feel free to stay if you wish, and if my esteemed colleagues offer no complaints… this is, after all, their train we are intruding on, I might argue.” He settles himself next to Sibyl gently and smiles again to her, his body crouched forward so he doesn’t bang his head on the luggage racks.

Hearing the name of the musician, Bonnie‘s eyes flick to the door, “Oh, my. Are you teaching this year, too?” She offers him a smile as she glances through the cabin. With them all being adults, it certainly does fill a bit faster. “This should be an interesting year, if we’re all to start anew.” The woman settles herself, removing her book from the seat next to her to be located on her lap so that there’s more room. “Tell me, is the sorting as fascinating as it always was in the past?”

Isolde Morgan smiles a little crookedly as she notices Darius’s presence. She nod in greeting, a safe enough approach. “It’s what these benches are for, after all,” she adds after the other professor, smiling at Clavicle. “For sitting.”

Karina Sedgewick takes a seat, and puts down her seemingly weightless sachel on her lap. “I would have been at school,” she explains to Isolde, “But… as I had… something to take care of in London, I thought I would take the train back. It has been too many years.” She blushes slightly, as if she had said more than she intended. Quickly, she opens her sachel and takes out a large, leatherbound notebook of cracking parchment and settles down to do some work.

Sibyl‘s cheeks pinken a little more under Darius’s smile – and then the nurse clears her throat loudly, and looks back to the other professors. Karina’s remark draws a quick, concerned glance across the car – Sibyl doesn’t say anything, but her sharp turquoise eyes still note the other woman’s comment. “Well, it’s good to see you here,” she replies, her voice softening a little. The train lurches, and Sibyl‘s ruddy complexion pales a little. “Ugh. Shouldn’t have sat backwards,” she mutters.

Darius Dwight idly pulls out a harmonica from his robes, and asks around the compartment briefly, looking for objections. Finding none, he picks up a quiet bluesy tune, letting its music fill the compartment with a calming, serene air. As he plays, he closes his eyes and enjoys the motion of the train.

“There’s room here Mrs Wexler,” Bonnie beckons. “I never sit backwards for that reason. It always made me ill as a child.” The woman chuckles and packs her things away, as she can tell that she won’t be getting anything done. The woman falls silent as Darius plays his music. “Ah, it’s been so long since I was to a concert. Hopefully there will be one or two at the school?” Bonnie smiles at Darius hopefully.

Isolde Morgan shifts slightly as the train lurches. “I think I’ll go say hello to some of my former students,” she announces, carefully getting to her feet. “I missed too much last year. If you’ll excuse me.” She then slips back out into the corridor.

“Need something for that, Sibyl? I brought some…” Karina digs into her sachel again, and pulls out a vial of shimmering teal potion. In the bright midday light a few flecks for what appears to be gold can be seen. She offers the vial to the nurse with a sympathetic smile. “Try it. It will help. My special recipe.” She gives the nurse a wink.

Stopping playing for a second, Darius answers, “My earnest hope is to have a single large concert at the end of every year. ALL Wizo-Music students will play. Provided I have approval from the new headmaster, or headmistress.” And with that, he keeps playing.

Clavicle Gravely smiles. “My deepest apologies. I am Clavicle G. Gravely, the third.” the Gravely name is known a bit, as the owners and operators of the Gravely Shadow Emporium and Autumnal Carnival. The carnival walks in both worlds, and the wizarding side has all sorts of magicakal things, mirrors and monsters. “It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.” he offers a hand to Darius Dwight. The boy is the son of the ‘Illustrated man’, the Major Domo of the carnival. This is pretty obvious as a skeleton Tatto pokes up over his collar and waves.. then politely raises it’s tophat to the female adults. (repose)

“Karina, you’re a treasure!” Sibyl sighs gratefully, reaching out to take the vial. Professional interest takes precedence for a moment – she holds it up to the light, examining the sparkling bits – but then necessity takes over, and Sibyl swiftly uncorks the vial, drinking down the contents swiftly. Almost immediately, the color returns to her cheeks, and she lets out another sigh. “Oh, thank you. Much better. You wouldn’t consider sharing the recipe, I suppose?”

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.

(Faculty) Isolde Morgan sighs happily as she settles in at the table. “I feel like I’m home!” she announces to no one in particular as she sets her small satchel to the side of her chair.

(Faculty) “Sorry I’m late,” Darius excuses himself as he sits down. “Got a bit caught up in nostalgia.”

(Faculty) Bonnie Kensington strides in slowly, taking in the scene of the Great Hall. It always looked majestic, but somehow, even more on sorting day. The woman smiles a bit and takes a seat near the end of the table, gancing around at the other faculty. “I can’t blame you, Mr Dwight. I did, too. It’s been so long since I was here.” Bonnie‘s smile seems permanently pasted to her face as she gazes about at the large hall.

“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..”

(Faculty) Silent, morose, and isolated even within the crowd, Astra sits at the faculty table with the hood of her cloak pulled up so that it is just covering her hair. Hands folded in front of her, she sits with her shoulder turned a fraction away from the Headmistress and while she does glance at the new faculty, she seems more mindful of the Slytherin table.

(Faculty) “It is always nice to come back, isn’t it?” Isolde asks pleasantly, turning to Darius and Bonnie. “At least… it would be as long as your time here was good, I suppose.” This makes her pause, but not for long. “Merlin’s beard. How did I end up with the Ravenclaw House?” the professor continues, totally on a different topic, obviously. It happens quite often. Her expression as she studies that House’s table is one of mixed panic and hopelessness, though both are thankfully in mild doses. “The First years will be smarter than I am.”

(Faculty) Darius Dwight shakes his head firmly, and answers, “That is not true. The first years will NOT all be smarter than you.” He smiles pleasantly, deliberately wry.

(Faculty) Karina Sedgewick settles down at the faculty table with a feeling of relief, as if she’s come home after a long journey. She smiles at Isolde, and answers her, “You gave the Hufflepuffs to me, Isolde,” she says, eyes twinkling. “And no, I’m not traiding.” She chuckles to herself, reaching up to tuck a stray strand of long, wavy black hair behind an ear.

(Faculty) “Oh, you’ll do fine,” Sibyl chides Isolde, with a reassuring pat on the professor’s shoulder as she edges past on her way to her seat at the other end of the table. Back on solid, unmoving ground, the nurse’s good cheer and good health seem to have completely returned, and she surveys the room with her usual comfortable smile. “You know, it still doesn’t feel quite right to be on this side of the room,” she muses, looking out over the Great Hall.

(Faculty) Melvina Prichard sit quietly, an amused smile brushing her lips as she goes over a few of the finer points of the notes she’d made. First impressions were key, after all. And she certainly wanted to start things off right. Her gaze does lift to offer a warm nod and pleasant smile to each of the arriving faculty.

(Faculty) Isolde Morgan smiles her thanks to the others and sits back, taking a deep breath. “It’s all in the attitude,” she states, either for her own benefit or… otherwise. At this point, she finally notices that the person in the headmistress’s chair is not the headmistress she remembered. “Oh!” she says quickly, blinks at the others, blinks at Prichard, then… blinks at the students. That’s it. Attitude. She is not a surprised owl. And so the eyes grow a little less wide.

(Faculty) Darius Dwight looks intrigued also by the new headmistress. Seated a good distance away from her, he can’t easily talk to her, but whispers to Bonnie, “So, who is that? I assume she’s Headmistress Hargrove’s replacement?”

(Faculty) Melvina Prichard draws a deep breath, looking up from her sheets of parchment with a confident sort of expression, looking out over the crowd of youthful faces with a pleasant expression. She sees Riley enter, and smiles a bit more; a softer, kinder sort of smile, that clearly decribes her as being to far across the nosy room to have heard his outburst.

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.”

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.

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 u