Astrid saw her best friend enter the Great Hall and couldn't help but giggle. She seemed in a hurry for something and her movements were so animated. She was so funny when she was excited. Astrid listened carefully as Allie started talking and felt pretty sure that she was about to be let in on a secret of some magnitude. Excellent. "Good to see you to, Allie." she teased. "So, tell me now, I wanna hear everything!" she said.

Kairi smiled, "Nice to meet you Lizzie," She picked up another chip and put it in her mouth, and then she felt the vibrations she'd felt so many times before: curiousity.
Kairi chewed her chip slowly, then turned to face Lizzie. "What?" she asked shortly. Her blindness was always a touchy subject with her, she didn't mean to be nasty, it just came out like that. She cleared her throat then looked at Lizzie again, "Sorry, sudden mood swing," she lied, and then she plonked her head down onto the table. Why, she thought, Why do I have to be such a moody freak? Sighing, she looked at Lizzie, "I'm blind, and I'm sorry I lashed out at you like that, it's kind of a touchy subject with me," She gave Lizzie a small smile, and then ate another chip.

Lizzie's eyes turned to the girl sitting next to Kairi. She, too, was looking around without seeing, and for a second Lizzie thought of the absurd idea that everyone except herself was blind. But it was only a flash of mind.
"Hi, I'm Lizzie" she repeated to the other girl, not sure if she had heard her the first time. But didn't blind people have super hearing? Or they could smell things in a long distans... She wasn't sure. Anyway, this girl was blind too, it was easy to see now. Lizzie felt so sorry for the two girls, but hoped they would be friends.

Kairi kept looking at Lizzie while she was talking, and in her mind she wondered what a blind person saw when looking at someone.

Allie scooped some food onto her plate, and then whispered to Astrid excitedly, making sure that Anna wasn't near, "We are going to throw Anna a surpise Sweet Sixteen!"
As she waitied for Astrids reply,she took a bite of her food, and realized that she was eating with a fork, and there was other sliverware on the table. She looked down at the smooth bench, and then seaid loudly, "ASTRID! LOOK FORKS AND KNIVES! AND FEEL THIS BENCH ITS SMOOTH! NO SPLINTERS! WERE AT HOGWARTS!"

The smile on the Lizzie's face made Astrid feel amazing. She couldn't help but return it. She really loved making people feel at ease and it was something that she was getting good at. First year, huh?! Well, she didn't remember seeing her around last year so she had assumed that but you never can tell. "Well, I'm a second year and it is so nice to meet you, Lizzie." she said. "Let me introduce you to my very best friend, while we're at it." she said. "Lizzie, this is Allie Johnson, fellow second year Gryffie and greatest person in the world." she teased.

A bit scared by Kairi's sudden change in mood, Lizzie, a bit worried, watched her as she plonked her head down onto the table. She felt a stuck of guilt, and hurried to say "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... you know... well I'm sorry I just wondered..." her words ran out into silence, and she felt a bit unsure of the situation. Did Kairi feel hurt,sad, angry? THere was no way to tell, and trying to break the ice, she continued. "If you don't wanna talk about it, it's fine. We'll just talk about something else." She gave Kairi a friendly smile. "Like what's your favouritefood?"

A bit shy but still curious, Lizzie looked at the girl next to Astrid. "Hi, nice to meet you" she said and smiled. "You're a second year too? Nice to be back at school?"

"I know you said already," Rosa replied. Her smile still sweet as she looked at the girl without seeing her of course. Only because she didn't want to be rude and have anyone one think that she wasn't paying attention. "I'm Rosa and I'm a third year, but this is my first year to ever attend Hogwarts and I'm blind to," she added.

She looked at Astrid, and joked, "I am the greatest person in the world, arent I?"
Then turned to first year.
"Hi Lizzie!" said Allie. "Yeah, Im a second year, too."
She looked down at the fork, smiling, then took a bite form her food. "Yupp. its fierce being back at school."

Kairi smiled back at Lizzie. "Thanks, your so forgiving. If I was you I'd be walking off in a huff by now," She grinned, and ate another chip. "My favourite food? Probably...um..." Kairi didn't know what her favourite was, it wasn't because she didn't know what her favourite food was, it was because she didn't know what the name was or what it looked like. Kairi shrugged, "Its the one with the sort of fast vibrations, you know what I mean? It tastes sort of like creamy, and chocolatey, it might even be chocolate. I dunno," She grinned and ate another chip. "Although I think it's these things," she said pointing down at her chips.

Lizzie gave the girl a big smile, when realising the content of her words, and changed it to a sentence. "Very nice to meet you, Rosa." She was a bit chocked by the way Rosa just said it right out: I'm blind. But still it showed great bravery. Of course, she had ended up in gryffindor, so true it was, right?

With a smile still upon her face, Lizzie looked at the two girls. "Well, Rosa and Kairi, is there anything you're especially looking forward to? Like any particular lesson or something"

What a fantastic idea! Astrid had never even thought about the fact that her favorite prefect ever was about to turn 16 years old soon. "Oh my goodness, Allie, that's brilliant!" she nearly shouted before realizing that, HELLO! it was a secret! "Well, what can I do to help? How are we gonna keep a surprise from Anna? She's the most clever person we know." she said, in a whisper this time, Thank God.

All of the sudden, Allie had the most curious expression on her face. Astrid was a bit concerned until Allie shouted, 'WERE AT HOGWARTS'! Astrid couldn't even try pretend that she wasn't as happy about this as Allie was. Instead, she just screamed along with her, "I know, right!! Its AMAZING!! And will you just LOOK at all of the boys." she added, knowing that Allie was in too good of spirits to give her more than a small eye roll.


Astrid giggled and said, "To me you are." She agreed with Allie 100%. It felt just PERFECT being back at school.

Kairi nodded. "Transfiguration and Charms," she said, eating another chip. "Oh, and Quidditch. What about you?" Damn these chips were good, she thought to herself. She'd never eaten so many in her life time.
Her misty-wolf was gazing up at her chips longingly. Kairi felt an odd need to bend down and feed it, but she was too scared. Lizzie's monkey and Rosa's cat were looking at there peoples own food. Kairi hated seeing these things, they made her feel haunted and alone.

"By you not doing what you just did!" said Allie, "We just have to be sneaky until the 19! Can you manage that? You can help me make invitations and stuff, I'll take care of most of it. We'll discuss more later/"
Allie rolled her eyes, and shook her head at Astrid..alwasy thinking about boys.
"I am to everyone!"she said sarcastically.

With a smile Lizzie looked at the chips. "I can tell you like them. So do I. I'm not sue though which other food you mean. Fast vibrations? Cream and chocolate... could it be some sort of dessert? Well I love panncakes." She listened to Kairi's favourit subjects, and raised her eyebrows at the mentioning of quidditch. Even though she was a muggleborn and didn't know anything about the wizard's world, her friends on the train, Erica and Natka, had told her some. And there was one thing confusing her. "Aren't quidditch played on brooms?"she asked and looked at Kairi. "I don't mean any harm at all, but are you able to play without seeing anything?" Wow that would truly be brave. And she herself was scared at the thought of flying when she could see.

"Oh I can't wait to have transfiguration, that's gonna be awsome." she added.

Shaylee quitely slid next to a couple of girls who looked her age. She was new and didnt know anyone. She smiled at the girl across the table from her and sat quietly hoping someone would want to start a converstation with her.

"I can hear the players, the bludgers, the beaters bats and the snitch from a mile away, and there are vibrations in the air too, although you have to have a lot of practice, and I fly a lot," she said, eating another chip.

Cale, sensing the obvious discomfort and tension that had arisen at the table, cleared his throat. "Now that we're all in one house, and we have time to hang out and get to know each other better, we're all gonna be great friends, right?" he asked, looking at the people at the table one by one, including Kingston in his glare of shame as well. He didn't want any fights starting. Nope. None at all. They could all play nice, yes? Right. It wasn't hard. Cale despised rude people, and wasn't about to have any in the house he was a prefect for.

"Erm, well, I wouldn't exactly call Bludgers flying balls of death, but yes," Cale said with a kind smile. Ok, so this girl obviously didn't like Quidditch nearly as much as he did. "I play Chaser, but we lost pretty badly last year," he added with a chuckle. "Do you come out to watch the games? You know, to show support for your house and all that jazz?" he chuckled.

Cale looked up at the newcomer and found that it was that young Slytherin boy, Raiden...something, Cale wasn't very good with names. "Sure," he told him with a smile. "Join the party!"

"Quidditch? I love it!" he replied, grinning broadly again. "Although Allie over there--" he pointed to the young Gryffindor second year along the table, "broke my nose last year during practice, she's beastly with her beaters bat," he joked. "We kind of lost to Slytherin last year and came in fourth, but hopefully we'll be much better this year. You thinking of trying out for the team?" he asked. They could always use fresh blood on the team.

"Yeah, like I said...it happens alot," Cale chuckled, blushing as he admitted to his insane clumsiness. "Tripping over things, knocking people over, spilling stuff, falling down...it's all in a days work for me!"

Taking an unfortunate sip of water at that very moment, Cale almost choked on his drink, coughing and sputtering as his eyes started watering. "Professor, did you say Cassandra Trelawney is the new nurse intern...person?" he asked, eyes widening in shock. What, had seven years of torturing students and over abusing her prefect badge not been enough? She had to come back and torment them some more? AHHHH!

It was official. Cale was never going to the hospital wing this term. Ever. Even if he broke an arm or something. He could just picture her docking him for being clumsy...and with him, he'd probably lose them the house cup if that was the case. It wasn't that he was scared of her, of course--he just disliked her immensely, mainly because the one time he talked to her, she accused him of being a horrible prefect and suggested screamed that he turn in his badge.

Now someone was screaming. Gah. Cale did NOT need anymore screaming. He rolled his eyes, but then he noticed who was screaming and why. It was Allie, clearly ecstatic about finally being at Hogwarts. He didn't blame her--he had been like that a minute ago. "Allie!" he called, waving at his friend from down the table.

While Allie berated her, she could help but giggle. "Sorry." she said as she scrunched up her face. She started to blush and looked around to make sure that Anna was nowhere to be found. Funny as it was, Allie couldn't really ever be mad at her no matter how hard she tried. "Awesome, Allie. I can't wait to get started. Anything you need from me, just ask" she whispered.

Taking her cue from Allie's obvious subject change, Astrid grabbed a few things to add to her plate. She didn't see how she was gonna eat anything tonight though. She was far too excited. She ignored Allie's little shake of the head, she already knew what she was thinking.

Lizzie turned around as a young girl sat down close to her. She gave the girl a smile. "Hi, I'm Lizze. This is Kairi, and Rosa." She pointed at her new friends. "Are you a first year?"

"Wow that's really cool, you must be great!" Lizzie said with a dreamy voice. "I'm gonna try flying at the lessons, but I'm never done it before so I don't really know what to expect." In her mind she could see Kairi flying just by sound. That was amazing, she could actually hear her surroundings. How would she manage otherwise, she thought.

Hi im Shaylee. yes this is my first year. What about you? Shaylee asked.

Allie heard someone calling her name, she turned to see Cale waving. "Hi Cale. How was your summer?" she called back. Wait. She needed to talk to Cale, almost forgetting all about her plans.But she couldn't just yell across the table. "Come here." she said, motion crazily for him to come. "I need to talk to you."
"It's a secret." she mouthed.
"AHH I cant wait!" said Allie. "I cant wait for classes to start."

"Nice to meet you Shaylee, I'm a first year, and so is Kairi. But Rosa's a third year." Lizzie answered. She looked at the girl and realised with some relief that she wasn't blind as well. Not that she had anything at all against Kairi or Rosa, she just felt that it was nice to talk to someone who really saw you. Curious, she started to tell Shaylee a bit about herself. "I'm a muggleborn, and I didn't know Hogwarts excisted or even that there were wizards before I got my letter. I didn't even know my uncle was a wizard, which he turned out to be. So I don't know a lot about magic at all, I'm a beginner. Hm... I love reading and dancing.. And sailing. And I just can't wait for the lessons to start. What about you?"

Naomi walked over to the Gryffindor table. It felt awesome to be at hogwarts not that other school. She took an empty seat and sat down. She looked at the people surrounding her and just said with a smile, "Hi I'm Naomi!"

MJ looked at Jason with concern and nodded. "Hey, no problem" she smiled at him kindly. "What are friends for?" she asked him and looked at the professor. She was glad that the Professor's were still kind no matter what. She looked at him closely and noticed she did not remember him from her first nor even her second year at Hogwarts. She kenw she had been gone so long that he was probably a new teacher. She had seen Cassandra up in the table and she was happy for her she wondered what she was. MJ suddenly heard her name and looked at the professor. "It's the least I can do, I don't like seeing friends or anyone for that mater in pain." she told the teacher and looked at Jason.

"Thank you for helping professor." she said and bowed her head to show him respect and gratitude. She suddenly wondered how the Professor knew her name she had been gone so long and she had not introduced herself.

Maybe he had heard Jason say it. she thought and smiled.

She knew she was no more use here so she said her good bye to both the professor and Jason and headed back to her table