Patricia put down her fork and took a sip of pumpkin juice before answering the newest arrival at the table. "Hi Winter, my name is Patricia... but you can call me Patty if you want." she smiled before adding, "Are you a first year too?"
Patricia was happy to be meeting so many new people, that she'd rather talk than eat.

After introducing herself to the girl that offered her a seat Winter heard a familiar voice. She looked around and saw one of her friends from last term. "Hi, Maura how are things going?" After speaking to Maura Winter heard the girl tell her her name was Patty. "Hello Patty, no I'm a second year. But I guess you could call this my first year at Hogwarts because last term the girls had to go to Belle's school of Magic. Not a very nice place." Winter said as she piled some of the delicious food onto her plate.

Maura looked over and saw a familiar face from Belle's. "Hi, Winter!" she said. "I'm doing great. Hogwarts is so cool! It's not how i imagined it at all. How are you?" she said cheerfully.

"Hey Jason! Rian was just telling me that you were the first cousin she met too." Liz says with a smile on her face.

"You must like making sure you have lots of cousins," she says with a small laugh.

Patricia nodded but then looked at her in a funny way. "Why were you sent to another school? Belle's you say? Never heard of it..." She questioned out loud. Scratching her head, she further asked, "Wasn't Hogwarts open last year?"

Patricia was really befuddled by Winter's answer, wondering why they were in another school that seemed to be really bad. How could that be?

Naomi walked over to the ravenclaw table and desided to introduce herself, Why not make friends with people from different houses? "Hi my name is Naomi" she said and then giggled "I just realized how funny that sounded." She smiled at the girls sitting around the table. "Do you mind if i join you for a bit?"

"Oooh, yes it is. I'm doing great. Have you seen Bell yet?" Winter asked Maura. Winter heard another familiar voice on down the table and yelled "Hi, Liz how's it going!"

Maura shook her head. "I haven't seen her." She caught sight of the girl Winter had been talking to. The poor girl seemed quite downcast...like when you are disappointed or hurt and the food in your mouth tastes like mush. Maura gave the girl a quick, sympathetic glance and turned back to Laylee.

"Hey Winter," Liz calls back.

Scooting closer to Rian, Liz makes room for a Gryffindor. "Hello, my name is Liz." She says putting out her hand.

Rian smiled a bit sadly at Jenn. It really sounded like her family wasn't the best. "Well, it's good you like it," she said cheerfully, "And during the breaks, you know, if you want, you're welcome at my house," she gave a shrug of her shoulders.

Rian smiled and nodded across the table at Jason. "Of course, how could I not come eat this wonderful food?" she asked with a laugh.

Rian smiled at Liz and nodded. "Yeah, it's nice." She laughed, "Degnoming is an interesting task..."

"Nice to meet you." Naomi said to Liz as she sat down. "What year are you?"

"Yup, always fun too!"

"I'm a second year, how about you?" Liz replies and takes another bite of the dinner roll.

"Me too!" Zoey said especially excited. "What is your favorite class?"

Melinda turned around to see her cousins, Liz and Rian sitting together, along with other, then finding Jason with them. No matter what her problems with him were, she approached them and gulped a little. Was it right to just bump in there and say hello, to all of them?
Maybe that was something she had to risk, some kind of rejection, well, full rejection from Jason, maybe. Just maybe.
She stood up and walked to them, who were also talking to other students, who seemed like either first years and second years. She smiled to them and waved her hand. "Hey..." She said to them, looking like a fragile piece of glass in front of that crowd.

Winter noticed the look on Patty's face and quickly explained. "Last term the boys and girls were seperated. The girls attened Belle's and the boys attended Cooper's."

Rian laughed and nodded, then, seeing that Luz was talking to a girl she hadn't met, Rian smiled at the girl. Hoping she wasn't inturrupting rudely, she said, "Hi, I'm Sahrina Potter," rather randomly. She laughed and tipped her head to the side, as if saying, "Yes, I am pretty crazy, but you learn to love it."

Patricia caught the glance from that other girl that Winter was speaking to, smiling back in answer. She really wanted to fit into the group of Ravenclaws.
Guess she'd have to try a little harder to get to know people.

She took a couple of pokes at her potatoes before finally taking a bite. They were good, but her appetite was slowly going down. Feeling a bit tired from the train ride, she wished she could just have a small nap.

"Hi i'm Naomi." Naomi said. "Im a second year gryffindor. No one at my table was talking to me so I desided to come over here."

As Mariel was talking to Jenn about possibly trying out the school brooms for an impromptu quidditch game, she turned her head at the sound of Patty asking their tablemates about using the school brooms. Stunned, at first Mariel thought Patty was trying to get her in trouble, but then relaxed as nobody said anything and she whispered a devious little idea to her. Mariel smirked back at her. I like how she thinks. "We should probably find out the policy on school brooms first. Maybe we are allowed... I'd hate to get kicked out in our first year... but if we aren't, there's always a way around rules." Mariel's smirk grew wider as she tilted her head to cast an appraising glance at Patty. "You've gotten bold. I thought you were a bit nervous about flying..."

Rian looked behind her when she heard a voice. She smiled when she saw that it was Melinda. "Hey Mel, how's it going?" she asked.

"Nice to meet you," Rian said cheerfully. She nodded as the girl explained why she was at another house's table. "I'm a third year Ravenclaw,"

Patty giggled, "I might be nervous about it, but I loved flying when I was still allowed. Besides I can't be that unlucky and fly against a wall again..." she suddenly blanched when she realized what she had blurted out. Ooops! she thought in a slight panic. "Erm, what I mean is... err....the possibilities of me seeing that Dark Mar... while flying, is quite nil. It can't happen and it won't!"
She ended in a slightly higher tone, color rising on her cheeks as she almost let another little tidbit of past come out.

Definitely feeling a bit warm now, she undid the clasp on her robe to let some cool air in beneath the heavy woolen garment. "Its a bit warm in here, isn't it?"

Maura smiled at the girl. "I'm Maura," she said. "I was at Belle's with Winter last year, so this is my first year here. What year are you in?" She felt as though she wanted to get to know people.

Melinda smiled at Rian and hugged her. "I am alright, thank you..." She told her as she pulled away from the hug and held her hand.

"How about you?" She asked, " Ready to go back to classes?" She asked, sort of excited.

Patty stared at her, "Wow, that must have been really odd. Why did they do that for?" She didn't know why they had segregated the boys and girls, and in another school to boot!

Patty smiled at Maura, happy to learned another name from Ravenclaw. "I'm Patricia... just call me Patty. I'm a first year." She said warmly, and then pushed her plate away. She really wasn't that hungry anymore.

"What's this Belle's school i keep hearing about? Why weren't you at Hogwarts?" This was the one thing that kept intriguing her about the whole situation. "Was Hogwarts closed for renovations or something?"

Laughing at the comment Patty made to Maura about Hogwarts being under renovations, she looked at Patty and then at Maura to see if Maura wanted to explain it.