Stasya wasn't a very good liar. Not that Emmeline thought she was lying lying, exactly, but it was the same sort of "I'm okay" lie that she herself had told her friends loads of times last term. At least, she thought that's what Stasya's answer was like. But she definitely caught the other girl looking at the staff table and FROWNING. So, Emmeline took a minute to scan the staff table super carefully before she said anything, but she didn't really see what Stasya was looking for.

Weren't there more teachers up there last term? She thought there had been, and her mood lifted slightly 'cause what if this meant that some classes would be cancelled??? But she didn't see why that would upset her best friend, so she trained her blue eyes on Stasya and smiled before replying: "Me too. It'll be a SUPER fun term!!" She'd try super hard to make sure of that for Stasya and for their other friends and for herself. Emmeline paused to rummage around in one of her robe pockets and pulled out a chocolate frog. Grinning again, she held it out towards Stasya and asked, "Want some chocolate, Stas? How're Dobby and Albus?" She imagined that Stasya might feel a little sad at her pets being stuck in the barn now, the same way Emmeline did herself, but hopefully thinking about the creatures would cheer Stasya up a little too. That was her whole mission tonight.

Before she could think of anything else to do or say, an older girl whose name she didn't know (Evie) had joined the table and promptly gotten lost in a book. Emmeline blinked a little in confusion; she thought only Ravenclaws did stuff like that. She was about to poke the girl to see if she was lost or something when a reallllly loud, RUDE first year boy (Beau) joined their table too. She raised an eyebrow at him, and shot Stasya a "can you believe this boy?" look across the table. Then ANOTHER boy was Sorted into Gryffindor and he joined their end of the table too (Thomas). He wanted to know who was in charge but at least he wasn't all rude like the other boy. Maybe the first boy was SUUUPER hungry or something? Anyways, Mr. Ace came over and started welcoming them both to the House, so Emmeline grinned at all three boys and chimed in, "He's in charge here." She pointed at Mr. Ace so the first years couldn't miss who she meant. Well...he sort of was anyway. She went on to say, "Welcome to Gryffindor! What're your names?" to the first year boys after that. She was still polite and stuff, mhm.

A few minutes later, the headmistress had stood up to make her speech and Emmeline zeroed in on her with laserlike focus; she was super sure that the headmistress would reveal something cool or important in her speech like she had done last year. She did announce that extra-curriculars would be coming back this year, which Emmeline supposed was pretty cool, but the rest of the speech was short and...not all that cool. They were still going to have Astronomy and Potions lessons, ugh. She really wasn't sure how to feel about all that -- especially about who the new Potions master was -- but she was soon distracted by the LOADS and LOADS of food that had finally appeared on their table! The second year started scooping food onto her plate without any more delay, though she did keep an eye on Stasya to see if her bestie was eating and stuff. You know, in case whatever was bothering her was SUPER serious like that.