Now that she had been sorted into her house and that was over with she could get to the real fun stuff. The stuff that she had really been ready for. Let the new friend making begin! As excited as she was to learn magic, spells and potions that could wait for one more day for that.

Oh, and food. She was hungry. One girl can not live on snacks and candy alone all day. She found a place to sit among all the other slytherins. Her mischievous grin fading a bit to a happy excited smile. ”Hi everyone I’m Maisey! First year here…. Still bouncing but at least she was in a seat this time. "When do we eat?” She laughed. When do we eat? GREAT first impression.

Bella was seated at the snake table direactly under the floating silver snake banner, wishing that she was anywhere, but here. It was her last year at the school and the dark haired snakette wasn't as excited as some others appeared to be. Bella wanted to sit with Apollo, but rules were sadly rules. She was hungry too, which caused her to look across the table at the first year that was practically bouncing in her seat. "We eat after the new headmaster has given his opening speech." she answered before introducing herself in a softer more kind tone remembering her manners as a senior student. "It's nice to meet you Maisie. I'm Isabella, but everyone says Bella. I'm a seventh year. Welcome to Slytherin, home of the snakes!"

In her robepocket Bella still had that bag of eatable WWW products that she had bought over the summer, but not used. Was it too soon to fake fainting or getting an unstoppable nosebleed? Fingering on the bag she wondered if HoH Hernandez would be very angry with her if she instigated something at the table. She wanted this her second to last feast to be memorable.

What a strange, strange train ride it had been for V. She started the train ride with Daniel and had ended with Stewie...

Where was Serena? She thought she could see Lisa over at the Ravenclaw table, and she DEFINITELY needed to tell one of them soon. Either Lisa or Serena before the end of tonight. Regardless, she'd fill both of them in soon enough.

She still felt a little awkward and embarrassed, and she glanced over at the Hufflepuff table to see Daniel already there. Stewie...where was he? It was only once she looked at the small crew of snakes at her table that she came back to Earth. There was a new first year and Bella. "Hi, I'm Victoria, but everyone calls me V. Welcome to Slytherin," she said with a flip of her hair, her cheeks still bright red.

Food. Meh. The last thing she felt like doing was eating, so whatever.

Sophia felt right at home at the Slytherin table. Her brother and sister would be so proud when she wrote to tell them. She smiled shyly as another of the first years (Maisey) started chatting with some older students. Would they be the ones showing them how to get into the common room? Or how to get into the common room, even. She supposed the Hogwarts castle was pretty big, to fit all the students in here in their own beds.

"The headmaster is new?" she asked one of the older girls (Bella). She looked up at the staff table. The headmaster certainly looked friendly. He kind of reminded her of her own granddad, if she tilted her head and squinted. The rest of the professors...hopefully also nice. "Did he teach here before?"

This was probably the first start of a term that interesting events didn't follow her. And it was awful. Serena had been stuck in a train compartment with ALL of her cousins the entire time. You mix Baltazars, Walkers, Escalantes AND Dos Santos into a single cabin and it's chaos. Pure chaos. She's pretty sure Perseus was set off to a bad mood from playing referee between Violeta and her. That girl was irritating. Too vain and too into Serena's business.

So, yes. She entered the Great Hall in a bad mood, but unlike other times, she tried to take a deep breath and not take it out on anyone else. Last term a first year ended up crying. Serena did not want a repeat.

Striding towards the Slytherin table, she took a seat next to V. "Where were you?" She wouldn't have this aching headache if they had sat together. Also, "Hi, I missed you." Wow, look at her expressing herself. Her therapist would be so proud of her. >__>

As for the rest of her table, Serena gave them a curt nod, Bella received a small smile. A gift Serena gave to her fellow housemates she's grown along with. "Hello, welcome to Hogwarts," she said solemnly. She had to play nice, remember? "Yes, that man is the new Headmaster, and no. He did not teach here before," she answered the firstie's (Sophia) question. At least, that man has not taught here since her time at Hogwarts.

Every step seemed to send another small wave of pain through Regulus' head as he moved to join the Slytherin table, taking care to move around to its other side so he could sit facing the rest of the school, with his back to a patch of wall between two windows. Surreptitiously massaging his head by pretending to scratch his eyebrow, Regulus found an empty space that fit all his requirements and promptly claimed it.

For a few moments, he stayed quiet and just watched and listened to those around him, but once he got some measure of things, Regulus leaned forwards slightly to join in. "Is it true the common room is in the dungeons?" he asked, when there was a lull in conversation.

He already knew that it was true. He knew where they all were, albeit only in terms of approximate placement. Regulus had had a lot of questions before coming to Hogwarts - about the sleeping arrangements, for example - and had made sure to get as many answers as possible, either through reading up on the place or by asking those adults he spent the most time with. But no one here needed to know that.

The pounding in his head intensified, and Regulus screwed up his eyes ever so slightly against it.

Soon enough they were joined by V who looked a little weird. Why were her cheeks tomato red? Curious Bella smiled over at her friend and housemate. "Hi V, why are you blushing red like a rose?" Was there train ride gossip already?

Turning to the newly sorted girl that had joined the snake ranks Bella greeted all friendly smiles. "Hi, Sophia was it? I'm Isabella, but everyone just calls me Bella. Welcome to Slytherin!" After a quick glance up at the staff table she shook her head in response to Sophias question. "Yes, the headmaster is new, our other headmaster resigned after last year. He hasn't taught here before I don't think, but I don't know much about Headmaster Winterbottom."

When Serena came and sat down at the Snake table Bella did her best to gauge her friends demeanor. Serena seemed to be in an okay mood for the moment. Returning the small smile with a bright one of her own Bella greeted "Hi Serena, its good to see you. Have you had a good summer?"

Bella watched the sorting as a boy by the name of Regulus Prince was sorted into Slytherin. Soon after said boy joined them at the table. When he had claimed his seat and had taken a seat she turned to greet him with a friendly smile. "Welcome to Slytherin! Regulus right? I'm Bella, 7th year. Yes our common room in located in the dungeons. Its quite cool actually since we can look out at the water wonders of the lake."

Approaching the Slytherin table, Norah looked up and down to see the faces of the rest of her House. She gave a small smile, mostly to herself, thinking about what the school year was to bring. Slowly she found an empty spot and sat down. She didn't speak yet, unneeded she thought until someone spoke to her. Instead, her favourite thing to do was easy as the older students talked together about their summers and introduced themselves to the other first years: people watching told a lot about other people.

Norah's stomach growled, she hadn't eaten all the food she'd gotten from the food trolley hoping to save room for the feast. She moved her eyes from her own table across the hall to the Hufflepuff table. Norah's brows knitted together as she scanned the table of that awful yellow color looking for one boy in particular. There, she found him, at the front of the table, closest to where she had just been for the Sorting Hat was her cousin Jackson. He wasn't looking, so she rolled her eyes with freedom before returning back to her own table.

V was not in the mood to answer any first year's silly questions right now. She supposed she should greet them, since she had told this first one here hello, but soon Serena's arrival distracted her. Cooool. She was feeling warm in her cheeks, still.

"I was with Daniel, then...Stewie was occupying my time," she whispered in her friend's ear. That's when she heard Bella's comment and her head WHIPPED around so fast her hair probably hit her neighbor in the face. "Because it's WARM in here, that's all," she lied, flicking her hair over her should once more. "It'll calm down, surely."

Bella was being mean or anything, so V did not roll her eyes, but she really wanted to.

A paper-airplane finds its way to the Slytherin table and lands in front of Serena.
Upon unfolding the parchment-plane, one can find a written note that reads:

Quote:

Meet me by the pitch after dinner for a late night lap around the field?
I'll even bring snacks.
- J

Regulus nodded once to indicate that, yes, that was his name. Hers would not be very difficult to forget.

But the lake? He twisted around on the bench to see outside, but the sky was dark and all he could really make out were the reflections of the inside of the Hall. Given this was his first time at Hogwarts, he had that disorientation that came with a brand new place, when everything fit together in a strange way, and remained so in memory even after familiarity settled over the top of everything else.

Still, Regulus tried his best to mentally retrace his steps back out of the Great Hall, onto the grounds, and towards the Lake, which apparently sat against the Slytherin Common Room. But it was no good; he'd gotten too turned around, and didn't even know how big the lake was in any case.

So he turned back towards Bella, seventh year, and said, "From the dormitories as well?"

Serena’s attention to V was briefly stolen away when a new Slytherin (Regulus) asked the most obvious of questions. Was their common room in the dungeons? No. It’s in the highest tower Hogwarts has to offer. She was going to say that, but that wasn’t kind so, she let Bella do the explanations. Besides the kid had more questions Serena did not care to answer. But there was something off with this kid, Serena noticed. ”What’s with your eyes?” she asked. Not that she cared, but when people ended up hurt or something wrong with them, she was somehow always blamed. Like that one time Johnny got a bump on the head because…oh wait, never mind. That was her fault. Anyway. This time it wasn’t her.

Speaking of Bella, Serena nodded at her question. ”It was amazing.” She had bonded with her new Quidditch team and got to train alongside Jasper, and hangout with him and stuff. She also spent quality time with her favorite person, Xavier. ”How was yours?”

Steel blue eyes darted down the table before turning her focus back on V. That’s when she spotted yet another face she wasn’t familiar with (Norah). Serena nodded curtly at her before turning to V.

As she did, her eyes grew wide, caught off guard by V’s news of the evening. Serena quickly recollected herself, as if nothing had happened. She didn’t even know who to start asking questions about. ”Tell me everything.” V and Serena always told each other everything, but maybe this wasn’t the proper place for it.

Before she could think much on it, or before V could get an opportunity to reply, a paper airplane found its way to Serena. She caught it one-handed, already suspecting who it was from. See, Jasper has been flying paper airplanes at her since second year, it’s become an instinct to pluck them out of the air now. Reading the message inside brought a bright, genuine smile to Serena’s face. As if the ice had melted off her for a slight second. Just like that, it was gone.

A few moments later the paper airplane left the Slytherins and off to the Hufflepuffs; a one word response on it.

The excitement of it all started to boil up inside of her again. She had to remember to breathe. Breathe. But she couldn’t. She could barely remember how to breathe in this moment. Yes she was surrounded by a few older students, and that made her even more excited. Being the oldest child she really enjoyed being around people who were just a little older than her, she often wondered what it would be like if she wasn’t the oldest sibling. She had plenty of questions to ask the older students. She smiled when an older girl (Bella) answered her question about food. ”Oh… we’re waiting on a speech now too.” Okay. Okay she could wait just a little bit longer.

Another older girl introduced herself as V. She liked that. V that would be easy to remember. Oh now she hoped she would remember all the names she learned today. She was about to ask another one of her questions to Bella, who was a seventh and seemed to know a lot of things here, when another girl (Sophia) who she remembered her name from the sorting, asked about the headmaster, she gave her a sheepish grin. Another curious first year here too and possible friend. Awesome! Another older girl, who Maisey didn’t know her name(Serena), answered her.

Mmm… her and her fellow first year’s really were curious, she liked that. A boy who she thought she remembered from the resorting Regulus was it? He asked the next question. Dorm in the dungeons? Now this was getting even better. And with a window view of the lake. Well she was sold. Things could not get any better honestly. The signature mischievous grin formed on her face again.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a paper airplane flying toward the table. She had to take a double take, like it was on a mission heading to someone specific. Maisey was about to ask the girl that received it if she could show her how to do that, when the headmaster stood up front the staff table. That could only mean one thing. Speech time! Then food. She listened attentively to the speech and the headmaster really reminded her of her abuelito and Grandfather. He was a sweet little old man. That made her smile, she was extremely close to both of them. Yes. Yes, eating was exactly what she was going to do. As she ate she started to get anxious about her classes and meeting her teacher and making friends. It had all been easy for her in the muggle world, kind of too easy. Like she always knew that she was different but now she knows why and what if she didn’t accumulate as easily in the wizardry world. All the what if passed her mind, and she decided that she would write her parents the first chance she got and that made her feel better.

On her journey to the Slytherin table after being sorted, Mia had a very brief heartbroken exchange with Aurelia, but she had bounced back quickly, the smile back on her face as she joined her new housemates. She really wanted to go sit with Lucky once the feast got going, but for now, she had quickly redirected her attention back up to the hat. The Barrington triplets would be sorted soon after her, and Soph a little later, but the numbers were in her favor to have at least one of them join her, she figured.

Xander had gone first. Mia applauded and whooped at his name, then cheered again at his final result of Hufflepuff. That made sense, she thought; Mia thought he was the softest and sweetest among them, but even though it made sense, she made an exaggerated frowny face at him as he went to his table to let him KNOW she would miss him. But her disappointment was temporary - Giselle AND Phoebe were dubbed Slytherin!! Mia had yelled and clapped and laughed and jumped up and down as each girl joined her. Her PEOPLE. And if Soph got sorted in Slytherin, too, it would be all her Woboldo's girls, all together in the same house! The same dorm, even!

A couple of others had been sorted into Slytherin during the wait for Soph's turn. "Hi, I'm Mia," she had introduced herself to Regulus, Norah, and Lev when each one sat down. When Sophia was finally under the hat, the suspense was brutal. Why was it taking so long? Mia had drummed her fingers on the table impatiently, her knee jiggling under the table, overthinking every element of Soph's personality that could or could not be influencing the hat's long decision-making process until-- she was a Slytherin, too!

It felt like the sun came out. Even though she'd thought she'd be Ravenclaw, Mia was a Slytherin with three of her best friends from primary school. There were hugs for any of them who had sat on her side of the table, and Mia could not stop beaming for the rest of the sorts. When the girl named Maisey rounded out their group, her enthusiasm remained for her, too, even though she didn't know her. "Yay!" she had said to the girl introducing herself. "Nice to meet you. I'm Mia!"

Now that everyone had been sorted, Mia got the opportunity to really take a look around at the older kids. She smiled at Bella, who seemed quite friendly, but also at Serena and V, who both seemed to be going through their own thing, judging by their tones and words. Talk of the Headmaster made her peer up at the staff dais - was that...? Suddenly Mia was laughing, "No way! That's Headmaster Winterbottom. He used to teach at our primary school way back, remember?" She looked to her St. Woboldo's classmates. How long had it been? Four? Five years? "He was fun." Goofy, she remembered, full of cheesy dad jokes to make them laugh, and warm, like a grandfather. His speech verified everything she remembered about him.

The headmaster was new, just like her and the other first years. That made Sophia feel better, that if the headmaster could come in and be in charge, she didn't have to be nervous. She smiled back at the nice older students who'd answered all the first years' questions, then looked around at the other new first year Slytherins. Knowing Mia and Phoebe and Giselle already made her feel much more at home.

She smiled at the first years she didn't know (yet)--Maisey and Regulus and Norah. Mia's introductions reminded her, she could do that too! "I'm Sophia!" she added to the general hubbub of the table.

At Mia's assessment that he'd taught at their primary school, she frowned. She didn't remember him. And she was pretty sure she would, right? "I don't remember that," she protested. Mia must be mistaken. "Maybe you're thinking of somebody else's grandfather."

Bella looked on with interest how one of the new snake firsties scanned the puff table for someone, rolled her eyes and then returned back to their table. Someone she didn't like obviously sat there but Bella wasn't going pry. Instead she greeted her with a small smile. "Welcome to Slytherin. I'm Bella. Are you excited about starting classes tomorrow?"

Ooo yikes! V whipped her head around so fast to look at her that Bella feared she'd get hit or worse hexed for just showing concern. Unsure of what to say she stammered out in response."Okay, sure V whatever you say." Lesson learned don't upset V if you could help it.

It was a relief when Regulus spoke to her. Anything to shake off the scare she just had was a welcome distraction as she nodded with a small smile. "Yes, we can see the lake from the dorms too. The water laps against the windows and the giant squid often comes by for a visit."

Serena's voice distracted her from looking up at the staff table so she turned to her housemate and responded. "Same here. I played both quidditch and gobstones and got to hang out with Apollo and Freddie some too."

Eyes turning to one of the new first years, Maisie she affirmed "Yes, the headmaster always gives a speech at the opening feasts and end of term feasts." It was hogwarts tradition. "Are you looking forward to any certain subjects?"

"Its nice to meet you Mia, I'm Bella welcome to the house of snakes." She greeted all smiles. Before she could say anything more the younger girl was laughing as she recognized their new headmaster who apparently had been in charage at her primary school. A fun guy seemed positive though. Bella clammed shut during the length of the speech and then when the food appeared she debated with herself. Should she throw in some WWW products or not? Yes, let's do it. It could be fun. They needed to liven things up especially after the V scare earlier.

Feeling down in her robe pocket Bella pulled out some fainting fancys that she threw into the nearest pitcher of cold butterbeer. She then dropped some puking pastilles into the bowl of mashed potaties, and some nosebleed nougats into the lamb chops pan. Satisfied Bella then filled up her plate with food and her goblet with butterbeer and began to dig in.

OOC:If you feel like participating Bella threw in some WWW products in the food bowls to cause some stir..Have fun with it if you want to.

As a rule, Regulus did not tend to give his name until he had been specifically asked for it, but it had just been read to the whole Hall and names were likely to become well known amongst their year very soon - he'd been paying attention to each of them himself, after all. Still, he did not rush into it without considering things, not being eager to break the habit entirely. "Regulus," he said, in response to Mia but for the benefit of the others too.

Regulus didn't immediately realise that the one question was directed at him; if he'd not been looking in the general direction of the red-headed girl when she'd asked it, he'd have missed it entirely. There was a moment's pause as he looked back at her - perhaps just a little longer than he might usually have done, as it was difficult to think clearly through the ache deep inside his skull - before Regulus simply answered, "My eyes are fine." Which was not untrue.

To the confirmation that the dormitories did in fact look into the lake as well, Regulus only nodded, apparently unfazed by the mention of a giant squid who occasionally watched people sleep. He said nothing else, and quietly nudged his askew fork back in line with the dinner knife beside it.

Talk of the headmaster brought Regulus' gaze back to the top table. He had half a mind to ask Mia - and apparently Sophia and some of the others, given she addressed them all specifically - which primary school it was they had gone to, but thought he might be able to guess. In any case, the speech came next, one which was mercifully shorter than all the other speeches Regulus could remember having to sit through in his life, and spoken by a man who seemed a lot kinder.

By the time the food appeared, Regulus was more than ready to dig in (and especially to sip on a goblet of water, in the hope it would chase the headache away), but he waited and watched, remembering what had been drilled into him over and over and over, and, sure enough, much sooner than he had expected...

He turned his attention back towards those others who had been lined up with him in the Sorting Ceremony, not taking anything from the middle of the table just yet. "Which of you went to school together before?" he asked, looking at Mia, and Sophia, and Maisey, and the quiet and watchful girl, Norah, and whoever else of them was easily within earshot.

Brenna thought this was interesting. There was no Slytherins in her immediate family and, although part of her wished she could see the Quidditch pitch from her Common Room like she knew her brother could, Brenna was curious to see what the underwater view would be like.

After sending a smile towards her big brother at the Gryffindor table, the tiny blonde made her way to her new """family""". She wasn't looking at them quite like family (yet?) because well, she was just about to meet them now. She hoped they were people she would get along with.

Looking from one end of the table to the other, Brenna decided to sit somewhat towards the front so she could still clearly see the professors. "Hello!" She greeted those around her, both young and older alike. 'Nice colours.' She thought. Totally suited her cute, curly blonde hair, mmmmm. Not bad!

The small girl turned to look at one of the other first years when she hear an older girl ask what was with his eyes. What was with his eyes? She wanted to know too, though she wasn't about to butt in. His eyes were fine? They were, according to him. Alright, Brenna moved on.

It seemed like a few of the first years already knew each other. She listened and waited for the other first years to introduce themselves before she spoke up too. "Brenna." She added to the introductions with a nod of her head that made her curls bounce ever-so-slightly.

Once the Headmaster had given his speech - a somewhat intriguing one, she thought - and the food appeared, Brenna started plating herself up. It wasn't too long after she had a few pieces of the lamb chop that her nose started bleeding. And not just the quaffle-to-nose type of bleeding, but more like a bludger-to-the-nose kind. "Um..." The little girl looked around, unsure about what was happening since she had never had a 'spontaneous' nose bleed before and was in no pain at all.

All very confusing!

It was yet another year at Hogwarts. What would be in store for this year? Max didn't know. He waved at his classmates with out saying anything and sat down. Yeah, he was kind of tired and hungry from the train ride here.