Isabelle laughed and patted Jeremy on the back. That was probably the first time she'd been called 'cool' in her life, and it certainly made her giggle. "Absolutely she should. All the wonderful people are down that end." She grinned broadly, secretly hoping her work colleagues down this end would take the joke.

Oh, so he'd heard as well. Of course Issy knew it was true, she'd seen Maya packing away her things - more than you'd just do if you were storing them to come back. Then she'd heard the news and, truthfully, become quite sad about it. Seeing Jeremy pout was fairly amusing, but the reason for it certainly wasn't. Crinkling her brow, Issy looked between the two waiting for the Mexicana to respond to the questions.

It would probably look awfully unprofessional if Isabelle leant forward and hugged Maya, wouldn't it? That was the urge she had, but such a public place was most likely a bad idea, so instead she stuck to giving the woman a squeeze on the arm. "I'm good, thank you. I hope you are?" You know, apart from the TERRIBLE SADNESS at leaving them.

"It's been great working with you, too. Thanks for being so nice to me when I started - both of you, really," she smiled, turning her head to grin at Jeremy as well. "However long you've been doing something, doing it somewhere new is always nerve-wraking. But having friendly faces really helped. You'll certainly be missed."

It was a good job the subject changed, because Issy was practically on the verge of some tears. And that would NOT have looked good. At all. "Oh, Alastair has promised a trip to South Africa for a safari. Whether that will happen remains to be seen," she chuckled. Not that he was prone to lying, more that the Ministry would get busy with all the changes taking place. "Yourself?"

Was that a note of teasing in the Arithmancy Professor's voice? Had she heard what Issy and Jeremy had been saying about the table? Heh. Turning her attention to another of her new found friends, Isabelle's eyes crinkled in a warm smile. "Fina. Ah well, it makes a change, eh? Although it's not much different from the other end, I've noticed." In other words - it was equally awesome. "How are you this evening?"


Tapping Jeremy on the shoulder, Isabelle pointed in the direction of their boss. He seemed to about to make his speech, and she thought it a good idea they were seated first. "Talk to you later, Maya, yes? Have a proper goodbye. We'd best get to our seats, Jeremy, Tate looks ready to speak." Giving Fina and Maya a broad grin and squeeze of the shoulder as she passed, she mouthed her goodbyes and strode back down her own end of the table.

-------------------

Staff changes, yes. Most of the people who had gone missing were ones that Isabelle hadn't really got to know, not that it made it any better. Plus it was incredibly confusing. It was just a shame that the one staff member leaving, that she did know, was such a friend.

Upon mention of the winning houses, Issy clapped enthusiastically. T'was a shame that Hufflepuff, her former house, had come last in the cup race. There was a consolation of second in the Quidditch, though. Not that her disappointment stopped her feeling happy for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, they had after all, worked hard for their achievements.

'Do not die'....He had a habit of saying that, but Issy couldn't work out if there was a reason for it, or if Tate was just an extremely cautious person. Either way, the speech was now over, and after some more clapping, she looked down at her empty plate. The food had sprung up in front of her and the roasted chicken was calling her name.

It didn't take long after the speech for some students to come back to the staff table. And this one seemed to be bearing gifts! Swallowing the food in her mouth, Issy placed her cutlery down and reached forward for the bag with her name tag on it. Taking a quick peek inside, she grinned and looked back up. "This is lovely, Kyle. Thank you very much!"